Negotiation Simulation

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When beginning any negotiation, there are many different approach styles to consider, but depending on the situation, some can be more fitting than others. One must be careful not to be too trusting in unknown situations, but it also must be considered that a certain amount of trust must be shown in order to be trusted by the other party. This sense of trust is absolutely necessary to manage to make both parties walk away feeling satisfied with the outcome of this situation, but it is also important not to give too much to the other party in an attempt to gain this trust. Doing so may lead to future entanglements in a dispute resolution situation. In this case, a representative of Pacific, having the upper hand with three members of the group contracted to their company, could afford to approach the situation with a more accommodating. The other company, with only one member of the band contracted, would be almost forced to approach accommodatingly, as they have much more to lose in this situation than the company with three contracted band members.

This being said, there are still several options for the approach a Pacific representative could plausibly take. However, given the balance of power between the two companies, and a need to show some trust in the other company, the best way for Pacific to approach at this point would be with a compromising style for collaborative negotiation. This would mean that they would have to give up something of what they want out of the deal to the other company in order to gain the things in the deal that were more important to them. This would allow both companies to gain something that they want out of the deal, not lose anything too important to them, and hopefully allow them to walk away from the situation satisfied. They would need to prioritize the situation, and decide what is more important to them, monetary gain, or exclusive rights to produce the album. For instance, Pacific might be willing to give up a portion of the monetary gain from the sales of the album in order to gain the right to publish the album under their name, and the other company might be willing to give up any sort of production rights for a certain amount of profit from the album sales.

In order to compromise, the representative from Pacific might be willing to offer a percentage, say ten percent to start, of the money that they stand to gain from sales of the album. Odds are good that the representative from the other company will come up with some sort of a counteroffer, for instance, they might say ten percent plus the right to co-produce the album. If Pacific has decided that it’s their top priority to gain exclusive rights to the album, they might then offer a higher percentage of the sales to keep that exclusive right, say fifteen percent. The other company might then lower the percentage to five percent and keep the ability to co-produce the album. As a final offer, Pacific might then say that they would be willing to offer twenty five percent of the sales, since technically they have the exclusive rights to one of the four members of the band. In the event that the other company is satisfied with this agreement and decides to accept that offer, Pacific would then gain exclusive rights to the album, but concede twenty five percent of their monetary gain from the sales of the album to the other company. The band would then be able to proceed with the recording and distribution of their new album without negative legal ramifications and both companies would walk away from the deal satisfied.