Chapter 53

Coercive Power

The opposite side of Reward Power is Coercive Power. Anytime you perceive someone as able to punish you, they have power over you. You know how awful you feel when the state trooper pulls you over to the side of the road and he’s standing there and can write you, or not write you, a ticket. The penalty may not be very great, but the level of intimidation is very great indeed.

Incidentally, in the real estate industry in California they have a joke about this. California has more 300,000 licensed real estate agents. If you think you have competition in your industry—try California real estate. The joke is that a Highway Patrol officer pulls you over to the side of the road and says, “Okay buddy, let me see your real estate license.”

You say, “Officer, don’t you mean my driver’s license?”

He says, “No, not everybody in California has a driver’s license.”

It’s hard for us to think about using coercive power on other people, but it’s always present in any negotiation. If you’re asking a clerk at the store to take an item back and give you a refund, both Reward Power and Coercive Power will influence that clerk’s decision. If he gives you the refund graciously you will reward him by thanking him and it will be a pleasant experience. If he refuses to give you the refund, you might get angry and it will be an unpleasant experience.

Here are some other forms of Coercive Power: The power to ridicule or embarrass, the power to affect a reputation by revealing a secret, the power to cause emotional pain by bringing up painful experiences, giving out difficult or painful assignments, the power to waste your time, make you repeat an assignment, or take a class again, and the power to limit your future.

Let’s look at how Power Negotiators make Reward and Coercive Power work together as a powerful influencing force. Parents use Reward and Coercive Power with their children. “If you go to bed now, I’ll read you a story. If you don’t eat your carrots, you can’t watch television.” Salespeople stress benefits to their customers to persuade them to buy, and try gently to imply the dangers of not investing. “Making this investment will do wonders for your bottom line. Do it now before the competition gets the jump on you.”

Managers use the carrot and stick approach to motivate their employees. “Do a good job on this one and it’ll really make you look good. Joe, watch my lips. Don’t mess up on this one.” Politicians use it to maintain the balance of world peace. “Maintain a democratic government, and we’ll give you favored nation status. Mess with us, and we’ve got 10,000 nuclear warheads ready to take off on 15 seconds’ notice.”

In any persuasion situation, the elements of reward and punishment are always present. Let’s say that your car is in the shop. They’re telling you it won’t be ready until tomorrow, but you must have it tonight. You let them know specifically how you feel.

What’s going on in the repair shop manager’s mind as he listens to you? If he goes along with your request, you’ll reward him with your gratitude and a pleasant, warm environment. If he doesn’t, he’s apprehensive that things will turn nasty. Power Negotiators understand these two elements and know how skillfully to apply both of them.

People who don’t understand Power Negotiation use one, but not the other. They threaten Coercive Power, but don’t understand it can be much more powerful when coupled with Reward Power. You’ve seen people make this mistake, I’m sure. When the car isn’t ready, poor negotiators get angry and try to force the other person to give in against their wishes. “If my car isn’t ready by 5 p.m., I’m going to sue you for everything you’ve got. I’ll own this place.” Applying fear tactics is an effective persuader, but it’s often done so crudely that it backfires. Then, if the other side does cave in, they often compound the error by gloating over their victory.

Power Negotiators know the subtle application of both Reward and Coercive Power is much more effective. They imply that things will get unpleasant if they don’t get what they want. When the other side looks as though they’re going to give in, however, they quickly switch to Reward Power by showing their gratitude. “That’s great, I really appreciate it. You’re very nice.”

Take a moment now and jot down three reasons why someone with whom you negotiate would be punished by not consummating a deal with you. If you’re in sales, think of the reasons why picking one of your competitors over you would punish a customer. If you’re applying for a job or a promotion, think of three ways in which picking anyone else would punish the company.

I wonder if one of the reasons you wrote was “They don’t get you.” That should be the number one reason that they avoid choosing your competitor—not because of the quality of the product or service that you sell, but because they don’t get you if they do that. To be successful at projecting Coercive Power you must add so much value to your product or service—that they fear not buying it from you. As with Reward Power 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.

Remember when we talked about the Bracketing Gambit in Chapter One? I told you that you should make your initial proposal so high that it brackets your real objective. Sometimes that’s intimidating for you to do. You simply don’t have the courage to make those way-out proposals, because you’re afraid the other side will laugh at you. In my book, The 13 Secrets of Power Performance (Prentice Hall 1994) I gave you the answer to this—you must figure out what you fear the most and do it. As with Reward Power, the answer lies in experience. Although a neophyte business-person may be uptight about a $1,000 negotiation, a more experienced business person will be philosophical about losing a $100,000 negotiation. Although a new salesperson may fear losing a $1,000 sale, the experienced salesperson will not let the loss of a $100,000 sale intimidate him.

New salespeople always have trouble with Reward and Coercive Power. When they first make sales calls, they see every buyer as being able to reward them by giving them the order, or punish them by turning them down, or worse yet ridiculing them for what they have proposed. Once they’ve been at it for a while they recognize that selling is a numbers game just like anything else. If they’re working hard at it and talking to a great number of people, there always will be a high percentage of people who will turn them down. Once they understand that it’s a numbers game, their perception that people can reward or punish them goes away, and they become a lot more self-confident in what they’re doing.

The opposite side of that coin, of course, is Coercive Power. Anytime you perceive someone as able to punish you, then they have power over you. You know how awful you feel when the state trooper pulls you over to the side of the road and he’s standing there and can write you, or not write you, a ticket. The penalty may not be very great, but the level of intimidation is very great indeed.

So anytime you perceive someone as able to coerce you, they have the power to intimidate you; and one of the greatest coercive forces we know is the power to embarrass people by ridiculing them.

Fear on a Mountaintop

The fear of ridicule can stop us from accomplishing many of the things we’d like to accomplish with our lives. Many years ago, when I was learning to ski, I was skiing at Mammoth Mountain in California with Ron and Marty Meripol, who skied much better than I did. They said, “Roger, we’re going to take you up to the cornice today.”

I said, “I don’t think I’m ready for the cornice yet.”

They said, “Oh come on, Roger, you can make it. Let’s go.”

So we rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain, which is just over 11,000 feet above sea level. I can still feel the tension in that tiny gondola as we drifted silently up the snow-covered face of this almost vertical cliff. It’s such a daunting run that even the most experienced skiers won’t talk as they approach the top. They sit there in silence, deep in their private thoughts, forcing themselves to overcome the fear of what lies ahead.

Finally, we slid into the terminal and stepped outside into the icy wind. I nervously put on my skis and skied down about 300 yards with my friends, until we were standing at the top of the cornice. A cornice is an overhang of snow, blown over the corner of the cliff by the snow. The skiers had cut a V-shape through this cornice, out onto the cliff. I would have to shoot down this V shape chute, onto the face of the cliff, which is almost vertical. If I made just one slip, I’d go down the next 15,000 feet on my head.

I stood there, looking down through this chute, and as I saw it, I had two options. Option number one was to hike back up to the gondola and ride down, but if I did that, my friends would laugh at me. Option number two was to die! I chose to die, rather than be ridiculed. That’s how strong that type of fear of punishment can be.

Recently, I skied down the cornice again with my children and now they have a sign at the top that says, “When your friends say go—don’t be afraid to say no.”

So understand and feel comfortable using Coercive Power. Whether you approve or not, it’s always present in the negotiation and your ability to use it effectively is critical to your success as a negotiator.