The Modern Consultant
#37. $100 Billion Dollar Negotiations w/ Christine McKay
November 28, 2023
After our Jay Abraham episode, I kept thinking to myself, who'd be a great follow-up to buying, growing, and selling businesses? Then, a Modern Consultant listener recommended I chat with this week's guest. Why? Well, she's a master of negotiation - $1M+ deals, $1B deals, and $100B deals. So, no matter what level of business you're playing at, there's something everyone can learn from here. Meet Christine McKay, CEO of Venn Consulting, a master business negotiator with extensive experience in M&A (mergers and acquisitions), divestitures, and integration. She is also the author of the book, Why Not Ask? A Conversation about Getting More and contributing author for several compilation books. Topics We Cover: How The Hardest Negotiation Starts Within The Four Primary Styles of Negotiation The Champion Style of Negotiation Evaluating the Success of a Deal Benefactor, Maverick, and Ambassador Styles of Negotiation Negotiation as a Way of Life Understanding Negotiation Styles in Relationships and Business References and Links: https://www.vennnegotiation.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemckay/ Book: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Not-Ask-Conversation-Getting/dp/1734954906
After our Jay Abraham episode, I kept thinking to myself, who'd be a great follow-up to buying, growing, and selling businesses? Then, a Modern Consultant listener recommended I have chat with this week's guest.

Why? Well, she's a master of negotiation - $1M+ deals, $1B deals, and $100B deals. So, no matter what level of business you're playing at, there's something everyone can learn from here.

Meet Christine McKay, CEO of Venn Consulting, a master business negotiator with extensive experience in M&A (mergers and acquisitions), divestitures, and integration. She is also the author of the book, Why Not Ask? A Conversation about Getting More and contributing author for several compilation books.

Topics We Cover:
How The Hardest Negotiation Starts Within
The Four Primary Styles of Negotiation
The Champion Style of Negotiation
Evaluating the Success of a Deal
Benefactor, Maverick, and Ambassador Styles of Negotiation
Negotiation as a Way of Life
Understanding Negotiation Styles in Relationships and Business

References and Links:
https://www.vennnegotiation.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemckay/
Book (Amazon): Why Not Ask?: A Conversation About Getting More

Timestamps:
00:41 Negotiation styles, identifying clients, personal journey.

09:29 Supportive, homeless single mom graduates Harvard, alcohol journey.

11:07 Incredibly transparent and impactful story, deeper insights into personal interests, grandfather's suicide, inner world transformation, negotiation with oneself.

20:06 We adapt to get more yeses, surround ourselves with similar people, develop a default style for asking, influenced by media.

23:21 Beware of the zero sum mentality.

31:46 Playing victim, undermining, destructive. Sometimes championing boundaries.

37:13 Growth mindset in negotiation, 4 styles.

39:48 Negotiating math assumptions in pricing strategy.

48:52 Negotiation is everywhere; values guide compatibility.

52:34 Curiosity fuels effective negotiation; play is important.

59:29 Assess inventory, profits, risks, strategy, relationships

01:01:37 Find opposite of fear; lean into it.

More About The Guest:
A specialist in David & Goliath negotiations, Christine is building the Negotiation Center of Excellence for small and mid-sized businesses. Having worked on deals totaling over $100 billion, Christine has negotiated with and for approximately half of the Fortune 100 including: Apple, Boeing, Marathon Oil, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, American Express.

About The Host:
Marc helps experts scale their impact in the form of high-ticket courses, programs, VIP days, and masterminds (without losing the deep impact of their 1-on-1 work).

After helping over 1,000 entrepreneurs, he created his Product Flywheel Framework to help the next 1,000 do it faster. Learn more at: https://8020solutions.co