ARTICLES

Scripting for Training Success

The value of staying sincere, and in the moment, can't be underemphasized to executives you prepare for high-level negotiation, but don't discount the usefulness of scripts. There's something to be said for not making it up as you go along.

By: Ron Shapiro

At my consulting firm, the Shapiro Negotiations Institute, we meet and train a wide range of talented people in diverse businesses and industries. I'm impressed by the amount of talent and energy in the business world. But these people—account executives, lawyers, CEOs, and top doctors—frequently surprise me for the same shortcoming. Many of them falter when they have to engage the other side, or audience. What they said they were going to do, and what they did in the pitch, negotiation, or meeting, seemed to change for the worse once in the glare of a transaction, and facing the other side's potential resistance.

Practice Makes Perfect

The key to understanding that gap between plan and performance is their failure to prepare with a script, to sketch out their statements and expected responses. The script helps you rehearse and build your comfort level when you have to make a hard request, or present a dificult position.

When I am involved in the give-and-take of negotiation in professional sports, for example, I sometimes must ask huge amounts of money for clients. And as some of superstars hit their late twenties, you have to ask their original team, sometimes one of the less wealthy franchises, to pay an amount it might struggle to afford. A certain discomfort arises that could undermine your confidence when you make "an ask" that exceeds what you know will be acceptable to the other side.

Practicing with a script before making a proposal can build your confidence level so the tough ask comes off without a blink or stutter.

Scripting for the Everyday
Even when the situation is not as intense as a big contract negotiation, scripting what you want to communicate helps you develop a comfort level with expressing your reasoning, or position, on difficult issues. And this can apply to personal interactions like breaking difficult news to a spouse or sibling as much as to business deals. In most cases, I don't write a script word for word, but use bullet points to sketch out the main pieces of my presentation. I use brackets where I sense potential uncertainty so I can make a last minute change, much as good quarterbacks change the play at the line of scrimmage. I write phrases like "ask why," or "probe here," in the margins as critical points in the script. The script also is a great tool for collaboration by your team: I ask colleagues to examine my ideas, and offer suggested changes, as well as play the role of the other side. Good devil's advocates will suggest changes and issues the other side may raise by putting themselves in the shoes of your client or counterpart.

Scripting can feel forced or mechanical, but what starts as a cumberstone exercise can become a gratifying one if it involves a good team member.