The economic thrashing that was the Great Recession produced one unexpected upside for me: It scattered talented friends of mine all over the country.
PulteGroup, like every other builder that survived that period, cut most of its headcount as it slammed the brakes on production. Many of the people I worked with there ended up at other builders.
Which means today I’m in constant contact with leaders on both sides of the proverbial desk: Builders and LBM sales leaders.
Last week a friend at a national homebuilder texted me: “I have two new purchasing agents assigned to me as their mentor. I want to welcome them to the team and help them land some early wins. Any book recommendations?”
I texted back three.
Now, if you’re an LBM sales professional reading this newsletter, there’s an interesting twist here: These are the books a builder is recommending to help his purchasing team negotiate better… against you.
(And if you’re on the builder side of the desk, you may find yourself nodding along.)
Below is the one-liner I included in my text back to my friend along with one quote that stands out from each book and how I use it in my day-to-day.
1. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
The one-liner I texted:
Easy read. Immediately applicable. Can’t go wrong.
One quote I love:
“You should engage the [negotiation] process with a mindset of discovery. Your goal at the outset is to extract and observe as much as possible. Which, by the way, is one of the reasons that really smart people often have trouble being negotiators—they’re so smart they think they don’t have anything to discover.”
How I use it:
One of the most practical mental models from the book—and one I use regularly—is what Voss calls labeling. It’s the frequent usage of three sentence-openers:
• It seems like…
• It sounds like…
• It looks like…
Labeling attempts to name what you think is going on in the other person’s world. It invites them to clarify or expand, which almost always moves the conversation forward.
“It seems like locked-in price matters more to you right now than product performance.”
“It sounds like you’re concerned about manpower on-site as you try to stay on schedule.”
When someone feels understood, they tend to talk more.
And when people talk more, negotiators learn more.
2. The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World’s Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen
The one-liner I texted:
Herb Cohen was the OG business negotiation trainer of the 1980s. Fun read with surprisingly deep lessons.
One quote I love:
“He preaches engaged detachment, characterized as ‘caring, but not that much.’ More than a business strategy, he considers this a way of life. ‘Don’t get fixated on a particular outcome. Always be willing to walk away—from the car, from the house, from the property. Once you see your life as a game, and the things you strive for as no more than pieces in that game, you’ll become a much more effective player.’”
How I use it:
“Care, but not that much” is an adopted mantra with an embedded warning: This only works when your pipeline is full.
Constant prospecting coupled with the delivery of unique value allows you to create your own scarcity.
And scarcity, in turn, allows you to protect your price.
Not by a lot.
But by enough.
3. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
The one-liner I texted:
A bit different, but this book will melt your face. Dense, but fun as hell to hunt and peck your way through it. One of my favorite books of all time but may lead to more questioning on how to seek and leverage power.
One quote I love:
“Power itself always exists in concentrated forms. In any organization it is inevitable for a small group to hold the strings. And often it is not those with titles. In the game of power, only the fool flails about without fixing his target. You must find out who controls the operations, who is the real director behind the scenes.”
How I use it:
This quote goes on to cite Cardinal Richelieu in seventeenth century French political circles, a reminder that this doubles as a history book. This is part of why I use and enjoy it, but you may not. I return to 48 Laws whenever I’m trying to understand a complicated situation involving people, incentives, or politics.
Trying to achieve your goals without understanding how power moves through an organization is like trying to play cricket in the dark.
(For the few of you who actually understand the game of cricket, I stand by the analogy.)
And one lesson I learned a bit too late—courtesy of one professional flameout I’d rather not repeat: Law #1: Never outshine the master.
So, what are you reading?
Those are the three books I recommended to help new purchasing agents negotiate better and build more profitably.
Which may raise a question for LBM sales pros: “If the people you’re negotiating against are reading up and studying to improve… what are you doing?”
Confidence comes from preparation.
Yes, you can learn from your own mistakes, but that stretches out the timeline for self-improvement. In the meantime, the owners and purchasing managers across the table from you are getting ready.
They’re reading.
They’re studying.
They’re preparing.
The good news is that preparation is available to anyone willing to put in the time.
And a little preparation goes a long way.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll be back next week.
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