You will be able to gather the data and context you need before a negotiation.
The launch clips went well. Now the property developer's marketing manager, the one Arjun worked with in lesson 1.2, wants to talk about a six-month arrangement: a fixed number of videos each month for a monthly fee. She's asked him to "send a proposal with a number". Arjun's first thought is to take his usual project rate, multiply by the volume, and knock a bit off for the commitment.
That might even be roughly right. But he'd be guessing, and so would she. This module is about preparing the whole negotiation on one page, and the first part of that page is facts: what the market says, and what's going on at the other side.
Lesson 1.3, Separate the people from the problem, introduced objective criteria, the standards neither side owns. Research is where you collect them.
What counts depends on the negotiation. For a salary, it's published wage data, recruiter salary guides and the ranges shown on current job listings, which module 7 covers in detail. For a lease, it's current asking rents for similar units in the same estate or block on property portals. For a purchase or a supplier, it's competing quotes for the same specification.
Arjun's market is less tidy, because there's no official rate card for freelance video editors. So he gathers what he can. He asks two editors he trusts what they charge for similar retainers. He checks the published rates on a few studios' websites. He looks back at his own invoices for this client over the past year. Each of these is imperfect on its own. Together they give him a range he can explain.
A useful test for any number you collect: if the other side asked where it came from, could you tell them without sounding defensive? "Two editors I know charge between X and Y for a similar monthly package" passes. "It just feels right" does not.
The second kind of research is about the people across the table. Every organisation, and most individuals, negotiate within constraints they won't announce. Finding them out tells you which proposals are possible, and when.
Budget cycles matter. Many companies set budgets once a year. A request that arrives just after the budget is fixed may get a no for reasons that have nothing to do with its merit, while the same request a few months earlier might have been built in from the start. Arjun asks, casually, when the marketing team plans next year's spend.
Approval limits matter too. A manager may be able to sign off up to a certain amount on her own, while anything above it needs a director or a procurement team. A proposal just under that limit can move in a week. One just over it can take two months.
Deadlines shape everything. If the developer has three more launches planned for the coming months, it needs a reliable editor soon. That's a constraint in Arjun's favour, and he only knows about it because he asked.
Find out who decides. The person you're talking to is often not the person who gives final approval. A recruiter passes your counter-offer to a hiring manager, who may need HR's agreement. A landlord's agent relays messages to the owner. A marketing manager takes a retainer proposal to her director.
You can usually just ask. "Who else will look at this before it's agreed?" and "What does the approval process look like on your side?" are normal questions, and most people answer them. The answer tells you who your proposal really has to persuade, and what that person will care about. A director might care less about the monthly fee and more about whether the arrangement can be cancelled if sales slow down.
Arjun learns that the director signs off any agreement longer than three months. That shapes his proposal: it needs to make sense to someone who's never met him.
Whatever you find, record it with its source and the date you found it. Rents change month to month. Salary guides come out once a year. A quote is usually valid for a limited time. A number without a date can be out of date without you realising.
Arjun keeps a simple note: the figure, where it came from, and when. "Editor A, similar monthly package, told me in person, early this month." "Studio B, published rates on its website, checked on Sunday." "My invoices to this client, last 12 months, total for comparable work."
Recording sources also changes how you speak. When the manager asks where his number came from, Arjun can answer in a level voice, from his notes, instead of defending himself. That calm is half the point of research.
For the activity, you'll gather three such data points for your own negotiation, each with a source and a date, and one fact about a constraint the other side is working within.
Collect three objective data points for your negotiation, each with its source and date, and one fact about the other side's constraints.
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