Mike Watson is the Founder of an entertainment company called Music Lives Beyond and the owner of the Music Lives Beyond Entertainment Center in Chicago, Illinois. He has been in the entertainment industry for over ten years with focus in promotions, marketing, management, photography and videography. He is known for deal making and negotiation on an everyday basis, primarily since he owns an entertainment center that people rent out for open mics, parties, video-shoots and photo-shoots. I recently had the opportunity to interview Mr. Watson because I am renting out his facility for my performing arts academy in September. We have been going back and forth negotiating the rental price for 16 weeks, so I felt he would be the perfect candidate for this blog interview assignment I had to do for my class project.
Mr. Watson proved that he could definitely
separate the people from the problem in a recent conversation we had. I wanted
to give him the deposit for the performing arts program on August 24th, but Mr.
Watson wanted the deposit to be in by August 7th. The reason I wanted it on a
later date is to satisfy my customers since they were preparing themselves for
registration for their kids to return to school, having to buy school supplies
and also school clothes. I explained this to Mr. Watson and even though he
understood, he still had to separate the problem and continue to run his
business the way he need too. After negotiation with him over the deposit date,
we came to a mutual benefit where we can do the deposit on August 17th and a
lower rate of $250 instead of $400 originally agreed upon.
When talking to Mr. Watson I explained to
him that I needed to be in his facility everyday from 9a-3pm, and he agreed to
rent the place to me for $100 a day. I recently changed my mind and asked for
only 4 hours instead during the times of 10a-2pm. I asked him would that lower
my rate and he said no. I didn't understand why when I am not in the facility
anymore for six hours. He explained that he was charging other clients $50-$100
an hour and only charged me a flat rate of $100 a day no matter how long I
needed the space. Mr. Watson positional bargaining tactics were firm and even
though he did not budge on the rate he gave me a deal on the deposit.
After talking to Mr. Watson, I realized
that in this business you have to separate the problem from the people, stand
firm on your bargaining tactics, and find a common mutual benefit for both
parties involved. Mr. Watson says that in this industry you have to separate
the friendship and family from the business. He wants to accommodate his
clients the best way he can so he is always up for negotiation but he maintains
his ground and never allow anyone to take advantage of him. Mr. Watson is a
great negotiator and is very fair in deal making.
