Who are the Best Negotiators?
Who ARE the best negotiators? Is there one decisive, objective answer? Every negotiator will have a different answer, depending on their personality, experience, and beliefs. When I am asked that question, there are three negotiation role models that come to my mind. Prepare The first is Warren Buffett. With an estimated wealth of $85.3 billion […]
Your Intention Drives Your Negotiation
Besides preparation and understanding true costs, what is the most important key to getting the best deal possible? Besides understanding the underlying drivers and the interests of your counterpart? Besides developing a rapport, and trust? Even more than all of this, the number one driver is intention. What! That sounds so touchy-feely and makes negotiating […]
Why Some People Improve and Others Don’t
Sometimes we step on the scale, only to find that we do not like what it tells us, so we do the only logical thing – step on the scale again. In your closed, windowless bathroom, maybe there was a slight wind factor. Perhaps you could breathe deeply and try stepping on again. Anyone else […]
Intuition When Negotiating
Why is our intuition important when negotiating? Intuition seems like magic – you know something, without consciously knowing why you know it. Some refer to it as a “gut” feeling. But it’s not magic, nor is it your gut; it’s a combination of knowledge, experience and being in the “zone”. In the case of negotiating […]
How to Deliver Bad News
It’s an unpleasant, but inevitable, part of life and negotiating; sometimes you just have to deliver bad news. Perhaps you have to let your supplier know you are not going to meet your volume expectations this quarter. Or they lost the bid. You might need to tell your client that the project is going over […]
Flexibility When Negotiating
In this blog, we’ve discussed many different negotiating strategies (MESO, Hardball, Framing, and even when you shouldn’t negotiate.). But you can’t use all of them all the time. You shouldn’t even use ONE of them all the time. You have to have flexibility when negotiating. Think about this. When choosing a restaurant to go out […]
Help Your Counterpart Declare a Victory, Too
You have all the leverage…and your counterpart knows it. You also have a relationship with them that you not only want to keep, but to nurture. What negotiation strategy will satisfy your counterpart even when you have more leverage, and therefore will achieve a more robust target? To paraphrase William Ury, co-founder of Harvard’s Program […]
Win-Win Isn’t Always the Way to Go
Nothing annoys me more in a negotiation than someone who overuses “partner” and “win-win” in the first five minutes. Once I stop myself from rolling my eyes at them, I ask them to define those terms. What do you mean by “partner”? Can you give me examples of other negotiations where you have succeeded at […]
Make Better Deals and Convince Your Kids to Eat Vegetables
How do you get the kids to eat vegetables? If your answer was “forceful throat stuffing,” you’ve come to the wrong place. However, if your answer had to do with providing options or layering tasty sauces on top, you might already be an expert at MESO (Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offer). When you include more than one […]
The 4-Step Negotiation Process Professional Negotiators Use to Seal the Deal
When we employ negotiation tactics, we often come to the frustrating realization that other people are equally as complex, motivated, and human as we are. Perhaps you discover this truth most often during spousal bickering. Maybe your boss shakes his head chronically while you are negotiating a salary raise. You might even be familiar with […]