05 November 2017
Everybody knows that negotiation plays an important role in business. If you can’t make good deals, then your business will suffer. If you appear weak in negotiations, you may end up with deals that don’t benefit you, or lose out on good business altogether.
So what are the key factors in becoming a master negotiator? Here are some expert negotiation tips to help you close the best deals every time.
1. Plan Your Negotiation
Do your homework by asking important questions before the meeting.
What are you hoping to get out of this negotiation?
What are the points that are the most important to any final deal?
Which point would you be willing to concede to build a great outcome for all parties?
Answering these questions before you start the negotiation will help you understand all of your possible outcomes and work towards the best solutions.
But you need to go a step further in your planning. You also need to be able to answer these questions for the other parties in the negotiation. Understanding what they want to get out of the deal, and how they plan on pursuing that, will help you know where your priorities are similar or different. If you know of something that is very important to the other party, that gives you leverage.
2. Be Respectful
A business negotiation should be about building long-term relationships. If you go into a negotiation with an attitude of trying to ‘win’ the negotiation, this may prove to hurt the value of that business relationship. Instead, show the other parties respect by letting them speak, as well as actively listening to what they have to say. Along with showing respect, you may also find other areas of common ground between you which will help you understand their motivations better. If you’re able to, show them how you’re able to benefit them in ways they hadn’t even considered to work towards creating the best possible ‘win-win’ solutions.
3. Know When And How To Walk Away
During your planning, you should work out the consequences of a failed negotiation.
What will happen for you and the other parties if a deal cannot be reached today?
Understanding this will help you know when an agreement can no longer be made, or will no longer benefit your interests.
Ideally though, if an agreement cannot be reached, you want to walk away respectfully and keep the business relationship you have with the other party in tact.
Learn more about how using the right words can help in a negotiation here, or watch this video for another great tip on negotiations: https://youtu.be/YfGlLWkEi4s
A Bit Of Humour For You
Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked a young engineer who was fresh out of MIT, "What starting salary were you thinking about?"
The Engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."
The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of five weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every two years — say, a red Corvette?"
The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"
The interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it."
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