What Is Their Primary Goal?

Whenever I negotiate with anyone,
my first priority is to figure out
what this person or this business wants.
What is their primary goal?

For example,
the large New York publishers’ first goal
is to protect their print sales.
They don’t understand eBook sales.
Most of their profits come from print sales.

This means every decision they make
centers around protecting print sales.
They will increase the cost of eBooks,
sacrificing sales,
to do this.

Writers who sign
with their eBook only arm
should realize this.
It will limit much of promo they do
and could really dampen their readership growth.

Once I’ve figured out
what motivates people,
their actions become fairly predictable.
I know they will tend to make decisions
that move them closer to their primary goal.

If I can’t figure out
how people will benefit
from the action they’re suggesting,
that’s usually when crazy sh*t happens.
I think long and hard
about working with them.

Know what motivates
the people around you.