Sales-Side Negotiation (From Great Moments in History) by Patrick Hansen

Author:Patrick Hansen [Hansen, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Brave Publishing
Published: 2012-01-12T14:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 10

Seller Countertactics

During the Second Punic War (219-202 B.C.), the great Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca wreaked havoc during his march toward Rome. Although his army was outnumbered, he was able to outmaneuver the Romans with clever battle tactics and duplicitous military strategies. On one occasion, though, Hannibal’s scouts made a terrible blunder and led the Carthaginian army into marshy terrain with nothing but the sea at their backs. The Romans realized Hannibal’s mistake and quickly maneuvered their troops to trap the Carthaginian army. Posting their best sentries at the only escape routes available, the Romans intended to destroy Hannibal and his invading army the next morning. However, in the middle of the night, something strange happened. As the sentries looked down the passes, they saw a huge procession of lights moving up the mountain toward them. Alarmed at the number of lights, the sentries concluded that Hannibal must have received reinforcements under the cover of darkness. It seemed as though his army had grown a hundred fold. As the sentries looked on, an almost magical scene took place. Fires broke out all over the mountain and a horrible noise filled the air, as if hundreds of horns were blowing simultaneously. The sentries, the bravest and most experienced soldiers in the Roman Army, panicked and abandoned their posts.

By morning, Hannibal’s troops had escaped the marshland.

How did Hannibal’s army escape? What caused the Roman guards to flee? At sundown, Hannibal had commanded his troops to fasten bundles of twigs to the horns of the thousands of oxen that traveled with his army. He then set the twigs on fire and sent the oxen up the passes, giving the impression of a vast army moving up a mountain. When the flames of the twigs burned down to the oxen’s skin, the oxen bellowed and stampeded in all directions, setting fires all over the mountainside.

Confronted with seemingly insurmountable odds, Hannibal’s simple, yet brilliant, countertactic confused the Roman sentries and allowed the trapped army to escape.

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