Chapter 52

Reward Power

The second element of personal power is Reward Power. Power Negotiators know that if you can convince the other parties involved in making the deal that you would reward them, you have given yourself the power to influence them. Unfortunately, many people who are trying to sell their product or service never develop the self-confidence to project to the other side that they would be rewarding the buyer. These people think that the buyer is rewarding them by placing the order with them.

Remember the old Sergeant Bilko television series? The supply sergeant on the army base had more power than the colonel, who was really running the base, because he had a greater ability to reward the men. The person who has the power at a taxi-cab company is not the owner, but the dispatcher, because the dispatcher has a greater ability to reward the drivers.

If your company has grown to the point where you’ve delegated the task of selecting which worker goes to a job and which doesn’t, you may have delegated away your personal power. Some presidents will relinquish power to their personnel director when they give the personnel director the right to make promotional moves and give increases in pay, and this gives the personnel director control.

Reward Power takes on many forms. Money is the obvious one, but there are many more. Some other forms of reward power include praising the other person, forgiving the other person, the power to assign titles (manager, vice president, captain), the authority to assign work or vacation schedules, and making recommendations to others who have power.

Remember Robin Givens? She was Mike Tyson’s wife for about eight months. When she went to California to hire a divorce attorney I’m sure she wasn’t thinking that she would be rewarding Marvin Mitchelson by giving him the case. No. She was thinking, “If I could get Marvin Mitchelson that would be really something, because he’s the best in the business. You can’t do any better than that.”

If you’re selling a product or service, you must believe that you’re the best in the business. Then you must know how to convince your customers of that. They can’t do any better than you. If you’re willing to put your personal reputation and expertise on the line to solve those buyers’ problems and the reputation and expertise of your company, they are not rewarding you—you are rewarding them.

Of course, you can’t push that too far because it quickly becomes arrogance, but don’t roll over the other way, thinking that your customers would be rewarding you by giving you an order. I’ve heard rumors that some salespeople will actually beg a buyer to give them just a small part of the company’s business. Can you believe that? Doesn’t it sound like a dog begging for table scraps? When you truly believe that you are rewarding the buyer, not the other way around, you will feel confident in demanding all of their business.

Take a moment and jot down three reasons why someone with whom you negotiate would be rewarded by dealing with you. If you’re in sales, think of the reasons why picking you over one of your competitors would reward her. If you’re applying for a job or a promotion, think of three ways in which picking you would reward that company.

I wonder if one of the reasons you wrote was “They get you.” That should be the number-one reason that they pick you and not your competitor—not because of the quality of the product or service that you sell, but because they get you. To be successful at projecting reward power, you must add value to the product or service—they must see value in buying it from you. You probably have some legitimate competition in your industry, companies that can deliver the very similar product at a very competitive price. The difference has to be you. Your knowledge of your product and service. Your knowledge of their problems and opportunities. Your ability to be creative in solving their problems and seizing their opportunities.

I wonder how many competitors you have for what you do? Two, three, or perhaps half a dozen? Guess how many competitors I have as a professional speaker? There are 3,500 members of my association, the National Speakers Association. Whenever I book a speaking engagement, there are 3,499 other speakers with whom I had to compete for the privilege of being in front of that audience. Meeting planners say to me, “Roger, with all that competition, how can you charge as much as you do?” I tell them, “Because I’m good!” That may sound very arrogant and egotistical to you, but you need to have that much confidence in what you do. You need to have that much confidence that you do what you do better than anyone else. The number-one reason they should pick you is that they get you and the only way they get you is to pick you.

Reward Power As an Intimidation Factor

Power Negotiators understand that anytime you perceive someone as able to reward you, you have given them the power to intimidate you. If you think that buyer is rewarding you by giving you an order, you’ve given him the power to intimidate you. This is why you feel intimidated when you’re making a big sale than you do when you’re making a small one. The potential reward is greater, so you feel intimidated. Of course, that’s entirely subjective, isn’t it? When you’re first getting started, you may feel that sense of reward over a $1,000 dollar sale. Later it will take a $100,000 sale to get you excited.

When the other side starts using Reward Power on you, recognize it and don’t let it intimidate you. Some people are absolute masters at using Reward Power. When they’re asking you for a concession, they just happen to mention that they have a big project coming on line next week, for which you might be in the running, or they’ll talk about their yacht down at the harbor, or their ski cabin up in the mountain. They don’t even have to come out and tell you that if you did business together you’d get to use them—it’s just implied Reward Power. Don’t let it irritate you, but recognize it for what it is and don’t let it throw you off base in the negotiations.

Once you recognize Reward Power and understand what they’re trying to do to you, their ability to control you with it goes away, and you become a lot more self-confident as a negotiator.