识破商业活动中的谎言——如何在商业谈判的准备和进行中防止受骗上当

关于谎言，有一个事实就是：人们经常会说谎，并且对于说谎抱有一种随意的态度。很多学术性的研究都证实，很少有人能够在一天的时间里不说一句谎言。而正是这种对于说谎的普遍性，让人们对于谎言所普遍抱有的想法就是——既然每个人都在说谎，那么说说谎又有何不妥？正是这种对于谎言无所谓的态度，让现今的商业活动中四处充斥着谎言。而原本就火药味极重的商业谈判，则成为了说谎者与拆穿谎言者之间的博弈。

“准备、准备、再准备”几乎所有的谈判专家都会提出这样的建议。特别是当谈判的双方是第一次接触且谈判的结果对于双方的意义重大时，准备工作则显得尤为关键。通常准备工作分为两部分：

1. 调查谈判对手的背景和诚信情况

至少需要了解到谈判的对手的一些基本信息，如业务是否合法、运营情况是否良好等。如果时间允许，对方的信用度、信用记录、公司或者个人的背景档案等信息，能够帮助了解谈判另一方具备进行谈判的合法资格。

2. 预先估计谈判中可能出现的情况

大多数的合同是在双方相互独立自主的前提下进行谈判的，也就是说双方都没有完全公开信息的义务，各方都是站在自身的立场和利益为前提进行谈判。但是为了尽可能地减少因为谎言对各方造成的损失，不论是时间还是金钱上的，双方可以在谈判之前签订一个协议——即承诺披露所有重要信息，这样至少可以保证谈判的人员不会刻意隐瞒某些重要的信息（比如某一方售出的土地下方有重要的矿产资源等等）

在谈判的过程为了防止欺诈的发生中可以做到的几点：

1. 寻找欺诈的潜在信号

- 异乎寻常的举动

- 言语含混不清

- 不愿将口头的条件或者承诺书面化

2. 采用不同的提问方式

蓄意行骗的人常常会闪烁其词、在表达上迂回曲折，顾左右而言他，以期望他们的陈述会被误读，或者找不出破绽来。因此，有时在提问的时候，可以将问题设计为开放性的问题，而不是限定答案的范围。

如果对于问题的回答觉得不可信，也可以尝试由提问者归纳要点，并要求对方给与“是”或“非”的回答。如果对方的回答超出了“是”或“非”的范围，则需要继续追问缘由。

3. 就已经知道准备答案的问题再次提问

是了解谈判过程中，对方是否诚信的最有效的方法之一，但是需要注意的是，不要去问那些显而易见或者信息较为公开易得的问题。

4. 在谈判过程中做笔录

通常情况下，当谈判的双方出现争议时，追究责任的难点之一是无法明确在协议签订前的谈判过程中双方都有哪些陈述。因此，有经验的谈判人员一般都会记下谈判过程中关键的要点，排除一切不明确的内容，有时也会邀请第三方见证谈判的过程。

5. 将口头的承诺作为书面协议的一部分

如果谈判的对方接受与交易相关的事实的陈述，那么就有必要将相关的陈述写入未来要签订的合同条款之中。举个例子来说，在某宗收购案中，收购方因为担心某一零件未来的销量不佳而不愿意将该零件生产业务一并收购。出售方遂承诺将确保有一个大客户在未来数年内持续购买该种类的零件。对于这种承诺，在签订书面合同的时候就需要加入到合同条款内或者作为合同附件，使其受到法律的约束。

6. 利用合同附带条款提供保护

在双方都允诺所陈述的事实都是真实的情况下，可以在合同中以附件的形式加以注明：当对方的陈述最终被证实有误时，应该以某种双方都同意的方式进行处理，从而对未来合同的履行予以保护。

信任，但是需要核实

当双方都能够核实对方的陈述是否是真实的时候，人们通常更容易相互信任。但是更多的情况下就是，从公开的渠道很难获得真实的情况。很多的并购或者投资谈判中都会涉及到并购对象的财务情况说明，单纯从对方主动提供的收支平衡表、现金流等并不能获得全面的公司运营现状的了解。因此，除了在谈判前和谈判过程中需要做好充分的准备外，及时对对方公司提供的信息进行核实验证也是必不可少的。

在实际的背景调查过程中，SunFaith会通过几个方面收集对方公司的信息，帮助客户全面地了解该公司的运营情况：

- 基本背景信息

- 产品及生产信息

- 市场、销售以及研发情况

- 行业内的声誉

- 来自供应商以及客户的评价

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(诤信企业管理咨询崔琛供稿)

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¨ 医药	¨ 诉讼执行
¨ 工业及技术产品	n 行政打击
¨ 化工原料	n 刑事诉讼及犯罪团伙打击
¨ 制造及建筑	n 海关保护
¨ 消费品	¨ 知识产权注册
	¨ 知识产权商业化
	¨ 调查研究

服务种类	诤信风险管理
¨ 市场/行业研究	¨ 公司尽职调查
¨ 市场进入战略分析	n 企业信用报告
¨ 竞争情报	n 企业背景调查
¨ 商业研究	n 资产调查
¨ 用户及营销分析	n 深度公司调查
¨ 尽职调查	¨ 个人尽职调查
	n 雇用前调查
	n 员工行为及公司资产监控和调查
	n 员工尽职调查
	¨ 定制调查项目

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[English]

Gain an Insight into Lies in Business Activities

——How to prevent being cheated in preparation and process of business negotiation

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Gain an Insight into Lies in Business Activities

——How to prevent being cheated in preparation and process of business negotiation

The truth about lying is: People always tell lies and hold negligent attitude to lies. A large quantity of academic research has approved that few people can keep honest for the whole day. Just because of the universality of lying, people usually hold the opinion that since everyone lies, it is reasonable to tell a lie. It is no other than the negligent attitude that makes the current business activities flooded with lies. The fierce business negotiation becomes the gaming between liar and lie breaker.

“Get fully ready” is the recommendation conducted by almost all negotiation experts. Especially when it is the first contact and the result is significant for both parties, preparation work is very essential. Generally, the preparation includes two parts:

1. Investigate the opponent’s background and credit

Both parties should know the basic information of opponents, like the legality of business, operation status, etc. They should also learn the credit records, company or personal background if time permits. The information can help the negotiator to know whether the opponent has legal qualification for negotiation.

2. Anticipate the possible situation in negotiation

Most negotiations are conducted on the premise of independence, i.e. both sides have no responsibility of disclosing all information, and both are on their own account. However, in order to decrease the loss in time and money resulting from lies, both parties should sign an agreement, that is, promising to disclose all important information. The agreement can, at least, make sure negotiators would not intend to conceal some key information. (There is important mine resource under the land for sale, etc.)

In order to prevent deception during negotiation, we should mind the following points:

1. Search for the potential signal of deception

- Unordinary behavior

- Indistinct utterance or sound

- Unwillingness of writing the oral terms or promises in contract

2. Adopt different question formulation

The negotiator intending to tell lies always say something evasively, expecting that their statement would be misunderstood, or no hole can be found in the theory. Therefore, we should start a topic with open questions instead of limiting the answers.

If the answers seem unreliable, the requester can summarize some key questions and require the respondent to answer “yes or no”. Provided that the respondent goes beyond "yes or no”, detailed inquiry can be followed.

3. Inquire the known-answer questions further

It is one of the most effective methods to learn honesty and credit of opponent in negotiation. But please try not to ask the questions with obvious answers or open information.

4. Take notes in negotiation

Generally, when dispute emerges, one of the difficulties in looking into responsibility is the uncertainty of both parties’ presentation in negotiation before signing agreement. Hereby, experienced negotiators usually take notes of key points and eliminate obscure contents, and sometimes a third party can be invited to witness the negotiation.

5. Write in the oral promises in contract

If both parties accept the trade terms in negotiation, the clause should be written in the contract. Take an M&A case as example, the buyer is unwilling to merge the business of machine parts production, considering possible poor sales of one kind of parts sin the future. Therefore, the seller promises that a key customer will continue to purchase this kind of parts in the future. Such promise should be written in the contract or attached to the contract, bound by legal ties.

6. Utilize contract attached clauses for protection

As both sides promise the facticity of their statement, the statement can be noted in the form of contract attachment clause: when the statement is proved wrong, the project should be dealt based on negotiation and agreement by both parties, so as to protect the contract implementation.

Trust and verification

When both sides can verify the statement, it is usually easier for them to build trust. But actually it is very difficult to obtain the real information through public channels. When it comes to the objective’s financial status in merger or investment negotiation, one party hardly knows the comprehensive business performance merely from the Balance of Payment Presentation or cash flow provided by the other side. Hereby, besides the full preparation before and in the process of negotiation, verifying the information provided by the other side timely is also essential.

In background investigation, Sunfaith helps the Client to have full understanding of the company’s operation status through collecting the following information:

- Basic background information

- Product and production information

- Marketing, sales and R&D status

- Reputation in the industry

Evaluation from suppliers and customers

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(Contributed by Sandy Cui , SunFaith Research)