When I talk about debtor's psychology, I often refer to the well-known psychologist's "five stages of Maslow's needs".
It is a theory that human desires have stages if lower-level needs are not fulfilled, higher-level needs do not appear. The five stages of needs are as follows.
Stage 1 Physiological Needs
Stage 2 Safety needs
Stage 3 Love and Belonging
Stage 4 Self-Esteem
Stage 5 Self-Actualization
"Physiological needs refer to basic desires such as food and sleep that are indispensable for human beings to live.
"Safety Needs" is the desire to live safely, want money and goods.
"Love and Belonging", also referred to as "Desire for belongingness", refers to social life where there is a desire for belonging to a certain group.
The "Self-esteem" is the desire to be evaluated by the group to which you belong, also referred to as the "Desire for approval".
"Self-actualization" is the highest level of desire to fully develop one's abilities and to grow oneself humanly.
The five stages of this desire apply to companies and debtors. As the management of the company gets rigid, the level of desire of the manager goes down steadily and, in the end, it is better to somehow survive.
It is extremely difficult to recover from debtors who are reluctant to meet lower-level needs. It is important to always be aware of what level is the desire of partners you are currently negotiating are at and respond.
