This is a true story. Only names have been changed.
Wendy sells her soaps to B&Bs and boutique hotels. She started her business at home and has just purchased a small warehouse where she has installed new machinery she bought on credit. She owes a great deal but is certain she will be able to recoup the costs within two years.
She is particularly taken with a new fragrance one of her friends brings back from Egypt. She orders the product and immediately sells this new fragrance to the largest boutique hotel who are keen to offer their wealthy clients something new.
Within two days she is sued by the client for significant damages as it is claimed one of their guests experienced burning pain while showering.
The demand was for three months supply of an alternative product or to face the publicity of a court case.
Wendy asked for time as she and her daughter had both used the product and loved it. She sent the product for chemical analysis and the results showed it contained no ingredient which could normally cause pain or damage to the skin.
She then replied to the boutique hotel ignoring their two adverse claims and provided proof in the form of the certification provided by the testing laboratory.
This wonderfully descriptive name was given to this trick by the guru of negotiating Dr Gavin Kennedy.
The story goes that as a German soldier your officer could force you to do something you believed to be wrong by threatening to send you to the Russian Front if you did not comply.
You can go to bed now, or you can clean up this mess.
In negotiations this is accomplished by offering two inpalatable outcomes for a negotiator one worse than the other. The intension is that you should select the least damaging of two evils. The Russian Front provides the pain against which any alternative sounds wonderful.
The Lesson
If you can, ignore your opponents two demands and begin by stating your most favourable position and negotiate from a position of strength.