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question will be answered later in this article. First lets visit each of
these important conflict profile styles.
Compete (I win - You lose)
Competitive style negotiators pursue their own needs - yes, even

when this means others suffer. They usually don't want to cause others
to suffer and lose, they are just so narrowly focused on their shorter term
gains that they plunder obliviously through negotiations like a pirate.

They often use whatever power and tactics they can muster, including
their personality, position, economic threats, brand strength or size or
market share. At its extreme negotiators call their behaviour aggressive
or psychotic.

When to use?
When you need to act or get results quickly. Competition is critical
when you are certain that something is not negotiable and immediate

compliance is required.
Competition can be an effective defense or counter balance to use
against negotiators with a competitive conflict profile. We would

recommend that you use a blended approach though, as both negotiation
parties locking horns in a competitive battle can result in a spiraling
deadlock.

When you're buying or selling something as a once off (e.g. selling
your own home or car to a stranger), then your negotiation will likely be
more competitive than say if you were selling to a close friend or family
member, or if you were in a business to business negotiation.

If you're buying or selling a commodity product or service, and
you have strong competition - look out, as you best get used to
competing.

What's the Danger?
The difficulty with people who are high compete (which a large
percentage of buyers are) is that competitive styles overuse competition.
This means that the other party knows exactly what behaviour to expect

and can prepare more easily. In a power imbalance negotiation, high
compete behaviour is very likely to lead to deadlock - which will get
you nowhere. They may also be more interested in "winning" rather than

reaching an agreement. If you're recruiting a negotiator, a very low
compete profile score would be something to be careful of. Some
negotiators combine high compete with high avoid. These negotiators

will compete first, and if they don't claim an easy scalp, they walk away
from the negotiation table.