Michael Scott negotiating at Chili's

I'm reading Chris Voss' book Never Split The Difference to improve my negotiating skills, and it's reminding me of that scene. Michael did everything right, not just because the script said so but because his technique was solid.

He mirrored the county rep by telling jokes and mimicing his over the top speaking style. He refused to talk business in order to build rapport. Michael talked about loving Scranton to show that he shared an important world view with the potential client. In doing so, he drew out the key piece of information that landed the deal. The county needed to cut costs. Then, and only then, Michael made his pitch. He combined the view of loving Scranton with the understanding of cutting costs and leveraged their rapport so the client trusted the pitch. Then he deferred to Jan so that the client knew that the pitch could be trusted.

And now that I'm thinking about it, the sales call with Jim and Dwight did the same thing. Jim built rapport and Dwight honed in on the client's real need. Support. Not cost, but how the client would be treated. And in true Dwight style, showed the client exactly what kind of support the competition gave and what kind of support Dwight would give.

Moments of brilliant writing, there.