Sunday, January 16, 2011

Negotiating 101 fail

Two weeks ago I agreed to develop and teach a new class for the college of medicine.  Today I e-mailed an outline to the director and less than 10 minutes later received a note back calling it "brilliant."  OK, thanks...

I met with him this afternoon and we discussed what I would prepare and teach.  At the end he became decidedly nervous and said, "We, umm, don't really have a budget to pay you to do this.  Maybe there could be some form of a quid pro quo between the college of business and the college of medicine."

"Quid pro quo" does nothing for me.

I replied, "Well, you could run that up to your Dean and have him talk to my Dean.  I have no idea what service your college could provide mine.  I would prefer to be paid."

He hesitated and said, "What is the going rate?"

I said, "Well, I'm paid Dh 400 ($110) per contact hour in training..."

I didn't even have the sentence completed before he interrupted and said, "No problem."  He practically got out his billfold and paid me on the spot.

Hmm.  Me thinks I could have got more.

If I do this only once I'm not making much money, as there are only 13 contact hours.  Still, it's a chance to add "Developed a course for Master's in Public Health and medical continuing education credit" to my resume.  Assuming I do it at least once per semester it will be a nice bonus...  but, yeah, I'm pretty sure I could have bargained for more... if I only had an ounce of negotiating skill.

*****
Ann has a more positive spin:  "He realized the 'quid pro quo' offer was going nowhere and he didn't want to lose you."  That's a nicer way to see it!

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