The art of the deal: Janine Allis, founder, Boost Juice

Janine Allis relishes a deal, but she reckons there’s a right way and wrong way to go into the process.

Janine Allis. Illustration: Johannes Leak.

Janine Allis says she loves poring over contracts and getting down into the weeds with deals. But she also loves the emotional and psychological side of transactions.

The self-made multi-millionaire says: “I am one of these people who really loves a deal, and I love every aspect of it. If I am doing due diligence on a company, I love the puzzle aspect of what makes that business successful; I love the emotional side of the deal.”

Allis’ wealth comes from Boost Juice, the juice-bar franchise she founded in Adelaide in 2000. It now has 500 bars in 13 countries and its parent company, Retail Zoo, includes Salsa’s Fresh Mex Grill and Cibo Espresso. She’s done plenty of negotiating over the years – from buying out her key rival, Viva Juice, in 2004, to the sale of the master franchise to Saudi Arabia, and countless deals with suppliers and competitors.

Allis cites detailed preparation, listening skills, empathy and EQ as central to good deal-making, and laments that too often people go into a deal thinking of only what they can get out of it rather than the objectives of the other party.

‘Very often the best deal is not about the money.’

She says: “The secret of a deal is making yourself fully understand what is in it for them. If you understand what their objectives are then you can work out how they are doing. Quite often people approach a deal and they only think about themselves – what is in it for me? And deals don’t go anywhere if that is the case. If it is only one way you are wasting your breath and energy. The greatest deal is when both parties leave a bit disappointed – they both feel they have given too much, but both feel that way.”

And it’s personal. Says Allis: “Whether buying a pizza or doing an M and A, you are going to do deals with people you like. If you are selling your whole business you don’t have to like [the buyer], but if you are doing a deal where is it a partnership you may pay less money because you think, ‘I don’t want to work with that person’.”

Deal-making can be daunting but Allis manages by over-compensating: “I read the contract, I know the details. I come into rooms really prepared, and what I have found many times is that the other party is not prepared ... The advice I give to people is that you can get a better deal with most people when you know more. Often people think, ‘I know what I am talking about; I don’t need to do the preparation.’ … The key thing in any deal, anything that you do, is to just listen. It’s listening skills that people are missing out on.”

And very often the best deal is not about the money. “I have been in many situations where there has been a bigger dollar figure on the table and the lesser dollar figure has been taken because there is a bigger picture and a larger vision,” she says.

Janine Allis will speak at Nurture Her, a business event for women entrepreneurs and leaders at the InterContinental Fiji, from 24 – 28 October 2018. Nurtureher.com