On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 08:00:08 GMT, "bat" wrote:
M Any advice or perspective would be greatly appreciated.
M Thanks very much for any help,

I don't see why you are so shy to tell the agent what you feel is fair
amount. The agreement was oral; there's nothing in writing; he feels it
should be 50% of the normal commission; you feel differently. Why not to sit
down and settle on some middle ground. His position is no better than yours,
as far as there was no written agreement.

Well put. This usenet thread is part of my work/research in advance
of a sit-down-and-settle discussion to reach an agreement. I'm trying
to gather all potential objective facts and relevant subjective
perspectives, and so far I'm quite pleased with all the responses I'm
getting. This is just the kind of stuff I sought. In the end, I'm
trying to educate myself to make an informed counter-proposal to my
agent.

I don't see why you are so shy to tell the agent what you feel is fair
amount.

Part of this is that I'm extremely sensitive when it comes to honoring
any sort of agreement. I suppose it's a morality/karma thing.
Additionally, this agent is also an agent for some friends of mine,
and I don't care to be spreading around a bad reputation; however, I
probably should realize that many of things are beyond my control,
particularly if people are not willing to evaluate the facts of the
situation.

In the end, I suspect the most-powerful approach to this negotiation
will be to empathize with my agent as well as possible. ie, sit down
and talk with him and state what it seems to be like coming from his
position. Basically, take his side and truly try to understand where
he is coming from. Argue the "devil's advocate" and use debate-club
tactics, if you will. This probably get's me at least 2 things: 1) a
better understanding of his perspective, and 2) more trust from the
agent if he truly believes I understand his perspective.

When/if I have achieved this, I suspect that he will be much more
willing to listen to my side of the story (not to say that he isn't
now--I haven't presented much, and am waiting to do so only to gather
more info...hence this thread.)

Alas, I suppose the above description applies to most any negotiation.

-Matt
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