LESSONS LEARNED
| Trump’s Strategies and Tactics | Trump consistently used over-the-top exaggerations in many negotiations, with few restrictions. |
| Trump considered “truthful hyperbole” in many negotiation environments to be morally and legally acceptable and effective. | |
| Lessons Learned | Too much exaggeration is counterproductive. |
| Consistently engaging in unacceptable puffery will negatively impact your reputation and effectiveness. | |
| “Truthful hyperbole” may constitute fraud or cross other legal lines. | |
| A “straight-shooter” reputation will lead to greater long-term effectiveness than the opposite. |
TARGETING TRUE MOTIVATIONS: USING CARROTS TO CLOSE DEALS
“It felt good seeing my name in print [when the newspaper headline “Trump Wins Game for NYMA” appeared regarding his high school baseball game]. How many people are in print? Nobody’s in print. It was the first time I was ever in the newspaper. I thought it was amazing.” 134
—Donald J. Trump
Donald Trump has enjoyed a long-standing love affair with the media (until quite recently). He admittedly loves to see his name and face in print and on television. For years he adorned his office with cover pages of magazines featuring him.135
And for years, the media have been very good to him and his brand. He’s also been very good to the media. Stories on Trump sell and sell well. Just look to the success of The Apprentice.
In fact, his relationship with the media—perhaps the most critical and long-standing “negotiation” in his career—garnered him so much free press during the campaign that it likely played a significant role in his winning the presidency.
How has he developed such a profitable and successful media relationship?
Trump deeply understands the media’s true needs and interests. He knows what they want and, crucially, why they want it. Knowing this, he offers them carrots that satisfy their interests.
This Trump strategy was used on reporter Wayne Barrett in 1978, as described in Trump Revealed.
Barrett, one of the first reporters to take a deep look at Trump’s deals, was about to become one of the first to experience a media strategy, then in its infancy, that would become familiar to reporters around New York, then across the country…. Trump handled him with carrot and stick—attempts to ingratiate himself with the reporter, followed almost immediately with thinly veiled threats.
First, the carrot. Barrett lived in Brownsville, then one of the poorest areas of Brooklyn. “I could get you an apartment,” Trump told Barrett. “That must be an awfully tough neighborhood.” Barrett replied that he chose to live in Brownsville and worked as a community organizer. “We do the same thing!” Trump replied. “We’re both rebuilding neighborhoods…. We’re going to have to really get to know each other.”
Then, the stick. “I’ve broken one writer,” Trump told Barrett another time. “You and I’ve been friends and all, but if your story damages my reputation, I want you to know I’ll sue.”136
Three elements make up the carrot part of Trump’s carrot-and-stick negotiation strategy:
identify his own personal and professional interests,
ascertain reporters’ personal and professional interests, and
explore what options (carrots) can satisfy them both. Trump used this same approach in his business negotiations.
After offering up these carrots, we will then evaluate how his approach aligns with the experts’ recommendations.
Identify His Own Personal and Professional Interests
Trump knows what he wants and why he wants it in his media “negotiations.” These include personal and professional wants and needs. These merge for his personal and business brand.
Why do we care? Because his interests drive him personally and business-wise and form critical components in all his negotiations. Here is what he generally wants from the media.
Professional/personal positions—what he wants.
– Press mentions of his name and brand—the more distribution and prominent, the better
– Positive press aligned with his brand and message
– Any press, even somewhat negative press is better than no press to Trump
Trump described what he wanted media-wise in his bestseller The Art of the Deal,
I’m not saying that [journalists] necessarily like me. Sometimes they write positively, and sometimes they write negatively. But from a pure business point of view, the benefits of being written about have far outweighed the drawbacks. It’s really quite simple. If I take a full-page ad in The New York Times to publicize a project, it might cost $40,000, and in any case, people tend to be skeptical about advertising. But if The New York Times writes even a moderately positive one-column story about one of my deals, it doesn’t cost me anything, and it’s worth a lot more than $40,000.
The funny thing is that even a critical story, which may be hurtful personally, can be very valuable to your business. Television City is a perfect example. When I bought the land in 1985, many people, even those on the West Side, didn’t realize that those one hundred acres existed. Then I announced I was going to build the world’s tallest building on the site. Instantly, it became a media event: The New York Times put it on the front page, Dan Rather announced it on the evening news, and George Will wrote a column about it in Newsweek. Every architecture critic had an opinion, and so did a lot of editorial writers. Not all of them liked the idea of the world’s tallest building. But the point is that we got a lot of attention, and that alone creates value.137
Why does Trump want this? It’s not just about the money.
Personal/professional interests—why he wants this.
– Ego satisfaction, recognition, and treatment as a celebrity
– Reputational interest as a “winner” and not a “loser”
– Reputational interest as a hugely successful businessman
– Reputational interest as a master dealmaker/negotiator
– Reputational interest as a top international real-estate developer
– Customer and potential customer perception of brand and of Trump (the person)
– Perception of financial and monetary success
– Actual financial and monetary success
– Sufficient financial success to enjoy the trappings of the uberwealthy
Trump’s editor Peter Osnos at Random House, publisher of The Art of the Deal, worked closely with Trump on the book and its marketing. He insightfully noted Trump’s core interests in these comments about their book marketing campaign:
It