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Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

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Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#41

Post by baby »

regal wrote: post #4

Murdoch made a mistake sending Jobs that first clarifying email. HC shows a lack of any coherent direction having one junior person send a response, and then a senior person follow up with more exposition. The moment Murdoch does this, the dynamic is flipped, and HC is chasing after Apple. Jobs's strategy is to jump all over this and make the argument clear: here's what we're offering, here's why it's good for you, h…

It's more than strategy, it's also very good phrasing and choice of words :

* (I’d appreciate it if we can keep this between you and me)

* Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#42

Post by jonknee »

> Analysts estimate that Amazon has sold more than one million Kindles in 18+ months (Amazon has never said). We will sell more of our new devices than all of the Kindles ever sold during the first few weeks they are on sale. If you stick with just Amazon, Sony, etc., you will likely be sitting on the sidelines of the mainstream ebook revolution.

Hindsight is a funny thing. Amazon's eBook/Kindle business is continuing to soar while Apple doesn't even mention iBooks anymore.

And then there was this, something believable only in the middle of a reality distortion field:

> Apple is proposing to give the cost benefits of a book without raw materials, distribution, remaindering, cost of capital, bad debt, etc., to the customer, not Apple. This is why a new release would be priced at $12.99, say, instead of $16.99 or even higher. Apple doesn’t want to make more than the slim profit margin it makes distributing music, movies, etc.

In Steve's world, Apple's raising the price by 30% and then taking 30% is a benefit to the customer and not Apple. Fascinating!

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#43

Post by _lex »

smallegan wrote: post #17

I guess it is the capitalist in me that doesn't really get what Apple was doing wrong by trying to set higher eBook prices with the major publishers.

It's a digital good (so marginal cost is zero). Price floors are the only thing stopping the average price from falling to zero. This means that an apple-imposed price floor is enticing. However, apple can always remove the price floor once they have enough inventory to make their market appealing.

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#44

Post by brown9-2 »

revelation wrote: post #13
waterside81 wrote: post #3

This was fascinating. Perhaps what's most interesting is how real Jobs seems. I mean, these emails read like some of the ones that I've sent in negotiations. With all the hoopla around him, it's easy to forget sometimes that Jobs was just a normal guy.

If you enjoy that kind of thing, you will love the email conversations in the federal lawsuit on no poaching agreements: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/23/3906374/email-exhibits-in-... (sorry, couldn't find original documents)

I like the last one where Jobs threatens to use it's patent portfolio against Palm if they do not work out a suitable "do not cold call" agreement.

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#45

Post by austenallred »

jonknee wrote: post #42

> Analysts estimate that Amazon has sold more than one million Kindles in 18+ months (Amazon has never said). We will sell more of our new devices than all of the Kindles ever sold during the first few weeks they are on sale. If you stick with just Amazon, Sony, etc., you will likely be sitting on the sidelines of the mainstream ebook revolution. Hindsight is a funny thing. Amazon's eBook/Kindle business is continuin…

Jobs could have set the price at whatever he wanted and they probably would have given in; Amazon was selling them for $9.99 and had already set the low bar, Jobs just had to pick his price and hold it.

Classic negotiation says the other party will give in if he or she can so long as you hold your points as not for debate. Jobs did just that. Brilliant.

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#46

Post by fragsworth »

adventured wrote: post #18
seldo wrote: post #7

My two big takeaways from this are: 1. Amazon sells every Kindle ebook at a loss of $3 -- they pay $13 wholesale and sell it for $9.99. I thought this was a typo, but then Jobs repeated the figure (though he said $12.50). It was my impression that Amazon also sells the Kindle itself at near-cost, so does that mean that Amazon's entire ebook business has been running at a loss the whole time? 2. Jobs certainly did win…

1) No, because Amazon does not always pay $13 wholesale, and they do not always sell for $9.99. There has never been a segment wide set figure on either.

So was Steve just making shit up? i.e., he won the negotiation because he was so full of shit that they didn't see any way to talk sense into him?

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#47

Post by jamesaguilar »

jtbigwoo wrote: post #31

There's a great moment in the first Jobs email: >>4. $9 per new release should represent a gross margin neutral business model for the publishers. We are not asking them to make any less money. As for the artists, giving them the same amount of royalty as they make today, leaving the publisher with the same profits, is as easy as sending them all a letter telling them that you are paying them a higher percentage for…

I think he won before the negotiation started. HC didn't have anything to gain by refusing to work with Apple, and potentially had a lot to lose. You cannot win a negotiation where you have no leverage, unless the other party is unaware of your position. But I do agree that this is a great moment in this email exchange.

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#48

Post by devinmontgomery »

This reminds me of when Jobs was proposing the new Apple headquarters to the Cupertino city council: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M, or heck, this dunk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INK-Pr6Z82A. Thrilling to watch, but ultimately it's easy to win a negotiation when you're in the stronger position. What I really wish existed is a transcript from Jobs making his first sale.

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#49

Post by larrys »

zseward wrote: post #14
larrys wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Although I think the titles are prejudicial "Jobs goes in for the kill" in terms of telling someone the conclusion they should be drawing like the Elton John song Candle in the Wind "all the press had to say is that Marilyn was found in the nude". The paragraph commentary of course is a version of this as well (color) but I don't see it as bad since there are more words there.

(I'm the author.) That's a totally fair point about the subject headings, Larry. They're intended to make the emails more accessible and scannable, but of course they oversimplify things. On the other hand, these emails are ultimately more about being Steve Jobs than winning a negotiation. And thanks, Dan. Much love to DocumentCloud for making the OCR of those PDFs super easy.

I liked the piece but my take is a bit different since I practically make a living by doing negotiations primarily by email. (Email is perfect it allows you to remove facial expressions and tone of voice which can be a drawback if not perfectly executed. Not to mention having to think on your feet and not be able to do what I describe below).

One thing that I do do is to very very carefully choose my words and analyze and interpret the words of others to divine meaning and hidden meaning. [1]

As such I simply don't believe that Jobs just fired these emails off I can almost assure you that as much effort went into this as goes into writing a Presidential speech or a chapter in a novel or a scene in a movie.

I do that, it works for me quite well, so I can't believe that at this level it isn't being done and I am somehow unique.

While it's entirely possible that Jobs wrote this on the fly more than likely it was a much thought out or even team effort where every thing was discussed and considered or Jobs perseverated.

I did like the format and you should definitely do more of this.

[1] A small example is this statement "Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?"

The addition of the "do you?" and the "Maybe "I'm" is critical in that sentence. Without both the emotion on the part of the recipient is much different and would be more negative and consequently less likely to come to an agreement.

Re: Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a negotiation

#50

Post by gavinpc »

jtbigwoo wrote: post #31

There's a great moment in the first Jobs email: >>4. $9 per new release should represent a gross margin neutral business model for the publishers. We are not asking them to make any less money. As for the artists, giving them the same amount of royalty as they make today, leaving the publisher with the same profits, is as easy as sending them all a letter telling them that you are paying them a higher percentage for…

Contrast with Murdoch's blunt use of weasel words:

"price-points you don’t like."

"does that give you enough comfort?"

"we are worried more about the absolute holdback of product elsewhere... than we are about the actual haggle over what the price will be" (read, you are haggling)

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