The Camp System of Negotiation
Since 1986, we have been coaching our clients through real-time negotiations using the Camp System of Negotiation. We’ve seen almost every business negotiation imaginable from every side of the table and provide our services for as long and often as needed. Our work has a training element, but we believe there is no substitute for on-the-job training. No matter how important or high stakes our clients’ negotiations are, we are responsible for what we teach by spending as much time as they need to help them prepare, execute, and debrief for every critical communication throughout the relationship.
Understanding Human Decision
In 2001, I started working with our founder and my father, Jim Camp. One thing that was remarkable to me was how he nailed his thesis. I call it a thesis, but he understood it as a fact.
“How do humans make decisions? Are they emotional or intellectual?” asked Jim to every new team of clients in our live workshops. This part of our training would turn into a 30–60-minute debate.
Many people could not admit that they made decisions emotionally. They fought tooth and nail until Jim accepted their decision to veto his belief that 100% of our decisions relied on emotion. Since then, neuroscience has proven Jim’s thesis to be accurate.
I give you this backdrop because so much of what we preach centers on decision-making, and decision-making starts with an emotional vision of the benefit. If one doesn’t see the emotional vision for themselves, it’s easy to say “no.”
The Importance of Vision in Decision-Making
Our critics from the negotiation community claim we have not evolved over the last 37 years.
I find this far from reality and very motivating. We have yet to hear this from our esteemed coaching clients for whom we’ve delivered significant results. Our in-the-moment negotiation advice is something other than what is found in books or all over the internet. Why? Most people do not realize that we have systematically excluded hundreds of others when we make a recommendation by applying our deep experience to this individual conversation. We are at our best when called upon by those “in the negotiation trenches,” we expertly guide them to achieve their negotiation purpose.
Vision drives decisions, and decisions move negotiations forward. Negotiations are hundreds (if not thousands) of decisions collected over time. Decisions are everything in our work. They guide us in our coaching, and they guide our clients while at the table. They also help our respected opponents consider their next move to get what they want.
The Power of Questions and Purpose
So, if vision is critical in the decision-making process, how do we create it? What is the best way to help the other party see things they don’t see today?
If our founder was still with us and you asked him how to create vision, he would say that the best way is with questions that begin with “what” and “how.” It is equally important to describe your “why” with a valid Negotiation Purpose statement (aka -Mission and Purpose.) This Negotiation Purpose statement is 100% in the other party’s world and 100% to their benefit.
A great place to start is by asking questions that are difficult for the other party to answer, either because they don’t know what they don’t know or because they have yet to give them much thought. Next, follow up with a short description, story, or presentation that gives them the answers as to how you can assist.
Jim was correct; if you master these behaviors alone, you’ll elevate your success in any field.
Our Experience with Startups and High-Stake Negotiations
For the last eight years, I’ve focused on venture-backed startups with my partner, Derek Blazensky, to support CEOs, co-founders, and any other team members who negotiate on behalf of the company. We’ve helped complete 12 mergers and acquisitions, over 45 series seed, A, B, and C fundraises, and over 100 commercial business deals totaling in the billions.
Challenges in Negotiating with World-Class Firms
The reason for this backdrop is not to boast or appear arrogant but to set up something new and powerful I’ve learned as to how to create vision in the other party. Keep in mind that many of the negotiators on the other side of the table are:
- Experienced investment bankers representing world-class firms.
- Corporate development teams and executives from publicly traded companies who appear to have all the power and leverage, with unlimited resources.
- Aggressive private equity firms.
- Venture capitalists from NYC and Silicon Valley.
We have discovered that many of these professionals equate negotiation to simply driving a hard bargain and sticking with it for multiple iterations. They understand that 90% of the world believes negotiation requires compromise. They make brash statements and sometimes threaten you: If you don’t give them what they want, you’ll risk the deal and your career.
How are they able to do this? The simple answer is that 90% of the time, it works.
Most young entrepreneurs are just learning what it takes to negotiate with these powerful and highly respected world-class negotiators. You can imagine their high levels of fear, anxiety, and stress.
For those less experienced, it is only when they have lived through and realized high levels of success in these very high-stakes negotiations that they discover that the other party is often bluffing.
They have been conditioned to believe the bigger fish will get what they want because “they have the money, and our clients don’t.”
So, how do you create vision and help these world-class negotiators see what they don’t see today? Asking difficult questions is not sufficient.
Creating Vision Through Clarity in Decisions
We have learned that creating vision in the respected opponent often comes from the clarity they receive from our decisions. In every instance, it’s not just our decision to decline their ask; it’s multiple iterations of that same decision. Any seasoned negotiator would keep asking for something until they discover that we are not moving.
Realizing they are bluffing can only occur to them once they’ve seen their tactics fail with our clients over an extended period.
This time is often difficult for our clients until they’ve built the mindset and stomach to be comfortable with their new system. This comfort level can only be realized by on-the-job training, systematically learning what to say and how to say it from coaches (that the other party does not know exist.) We have seen our clients thrive and deliver again and again in some of the most important negotiations of their careers.
It’s not easy, but if you’re coachable and trust the system and our support, you can accomplish things you did not know were attainable with world-class negotiators on the other side of the table.
Summarizing How Vision Drives Decision
Two things can be true at the same time:
1. Vision drives decisions that can absolutely lead to action.
2. Your most difficult and pivotal decision to reject will be the only thing that will create the required vision responsible for contemplating new decisions from some of the best negotiators in the world.
