Negotiation Preparation Questionnaire

http://faculty.washington.edu/vandra/html/negprepquest.html

``Managing how things happen means

mastering what things happen."
-- Kuhn, 1998

The key to success in negotiation is preparation and planning. On first blush, the
concept of preparation seems to imply that a negotiation is inherently systematic and
rationale. The interactive nature of a negotiation makes it impossible to determine in
advance what actually will transpire, what settlement is best or who has "won" the
negotiation. Most often there are troublesome trade-off. Preparation and planning pay
off, but not in such a deterministic manner. Comprehensive preparation focuses on the
process as well as the outcome. Your planning document should address the following
questions:

1. Clarify Interests
2. Negotiation Standards
3. Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
4. Assumptions
5. Accreditation of Proposal
6. Briefing Book
7. What kind of negotiators are on your side? On the other side?
8. Strategy, Tactics, Manuevers and Techniques
9. Ground Rules
10. Opening Position
11. Concessions
12. Closing the Deal
13. Measuring the Utility

Outcome Issues
1. Clarify Interests

Brainstorm and then list the interests of each party to the negotiation.

If you understand the interests of the parties, you have a much greater chance of
success. Remember, that interests are quite different than positions. Interests are what the
person or team really is concerned about. You will be more able to sell your ideas to the
other side, make trade-offs between items you don't care about and those which you do
care about. If you know what the interests are and can separate them from the positions
(22 Questions to Separate Interests From Positions).

What do you care about?

If you were to walk in the shoes of the other party to the negotiation, what would
you care about?

Do you see any overlaps or commonalties?

Are there possible items that you may value less than the other side and vice versa?

2. Negotiation Standards

By identifying where you want to go and what you wish to achieve, you are more likely to
get there and get what you want. By specifying pessimistic, realistic and optimistic goals,
you have identified your initial bargaining range for each issue. Prioritizing your interests
helps identify interests which are tradable as well as opportunities for concession and
mutual gain. Maximizing joint gain tends to make each party to a negotiation feel more
like a winner.

Develop specific standards (pessimistic, realistic, and optimistic) for each of your interest.
Next, prioritize each party's interests (Allocate 100 points across your interests and do the
same for what you perceive the other party's interests to be). Which interest is most
important? Second? Why? Which interests overlap?

What are your standards for each interest?

Which interests are primary? secondary?

Which interests are tradable?

What packages of interests might appeal to you? To the other side?

Sample of Interests for Selling a House

 Interest Priority Pessimistic Realistic Optimistic
1. Price to sell house 60 $150,000 $175,000 $200,000
2. Terms 25 Personal note FHA loan Bank loan
3. Closing date 10 When other 60 days 30 days
house is sold
4. Agent Fees 5 7% 5% 3%

Your negotiation range is the spread between your pessimistic and optimistic levels for each
issue. Based upon the identification of issues and options, you can now develop packages or
determine which items you might be willing to trade.

Provide a Rationale for Each Interest Range. For each settlement range you have identified,
provide a rationale that can be used to convince yourself and the other party that your range
is realistic For example, the pessimistic price of the house may be the amount you still owe
on your mortgage The realistic price may be the price you originally paid plus an adjustment
for market increases. The optimistic value may be based on the price that slightly larger
houses in your area have recently sold.

3. Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement

What is your BATNA? Estimate the BATNA for the other side.

The Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, BATNA, is the bottom line standard
against which any negotiation should be measured. It is a negotiator's greatest source of
power and protects negotiators and their clients from accepting terms that are too
unfavorable and from rejecting terms that are in your favor but not ideal. A relative term
used by economists is called opportunity costs, namely what you give up by doing the
deal. In some cases, you can improve your BATNA even before the negotiation. For
example, you may already have identified an alternative source of raw materials. When you
are proactive, you strengthen your bargaining position.

Of your alternatives, what will you really do if no agreement is reached?

What can you do to improve your BATNA?

What are the alternatives open to the other side if an agreement is not reached?

What can you do to make their BATNA less attractive?

4. Assumptions
What assumptions are you making about interests and positions ? What questions can
you ask to test the validity of your assumptions?

At any given time, a negotiator can perceive only part of the whole puzzle of positions,
interests, options, and intentions. The well prepared negotiator thinks through his or her
assumptions and checks out perceptions against realities. Therefore it is important to:

What are your assumptions?

Are they important enough that you need to check them out with the other party?

What key phrases from the other party should you listen for that might lead you
question your assumptions?

5. Accreditation of Proposal

How will you accredit or legitimize your proposal, your ideas, yourself?

Accreditation involves enhancing a proposal by using: logic, market value, precedents, value
of the agreement or the relationship, scientific standards and your personal and
organizational credibility. How best to accredit your proposal depends upon your
objectives, the personalities of the negotiators and importance of the outcome and the
relationship. Each preparation report should include at least one example of an
accreditation.

External standards as a shield or sword (industry benchmarks, salary surveys, scatter

diagram)?

Testimonials from customers

Financial worksheets

Visuals (letterhead, product samples, sample contracts)

Draft agreement

Legal precedence

Multiple rationales

Resumes and net worth analysis of key employees, investors

6. Briefing Book

What material will have in your briefing book?

Similar to a lawyer's trial note book, your briefing book includes your notes on various
subjects. Your briefing book provides you with an arsenal of information upon which to
negotiate successfully. Some items you may wish to include are:

Notes on the parties and their alternatives

Lists of your major and minor interests

Lists of their major and minor interests

Reports, documentation and references that can be used to accredit your plan

Tactics and strategies you think will be effective

Research and background material

Delineate of agent's scope of authority

Identification of specific packages or trades

Potential arguments to overcome objections or to sell your interests

Procedural Issues
7. What kind of negotiator(s) are on your side? On the other side?

What is your negotiation/ communication style? theirs? What are your strengths?
weaknesses? What are strengths and weaknesses of other members of your negotiation
team? Your response to this question should evolve over time as you participate in more
negotiations and get to know more about your negotiation style. Do you like confrontation or
argumentation? Are there gender or cultural concerns that need to be considered? what are
they and how will you deal with them? If there are multi-parties involves, what roles will the
various members on your team play?

8. Strategy, Tactics, Maneuvers and Techniques

What strategy (be specific) do you plan to follow in the negotiation (competitive,
cooperative, integrative, principled)? Why?
Strategy involves the overall approach to negotiations. Some strategies are designed to claim
value and others are designed to create value. Will it be a win-win, distributive, integrative,
principled, open confrontation? Why?

Tactical maneuvers involve any actions designed to help you achieve your goals. Tactics
focus on identifying the other party's resistance point, assessing the other party's outcome
values and costs, managing the your own impression, modifying the other party's perception
of her own outcome values, manipulating the actual costs of delaying or aborting
negotiations. Tactical maneuvers minimally focus on the opening moves in the negotiation,
the process to reach agreement, and bring closure to a negotiation. What tactics will you use
if an impasse is reached? Will you use dirty tricks? If dirty tricks are used, how will you deal
with them?

Negotiation techniques are not grand strategies but weapons in an arsenal. If well employed,
they provide a source of power. If poorly executed, they can create needless hostility.

9. Ground Rules

What are the ground rules and setting for the negotiation?

Controlling the process helps to control the outcome. Considerations include:

Where will everyone be most comfortable? Where is the product located? The items
to be negotiated?

Are healthful refreshments available?

Are specific props required to set the stage for the negotiation?

Are any topics off limits?

Do you want to discuss your interests in any particular order?

Are there time limits?

Do you want to specify up front procedures if an impasse is reached?

Are there specific terms (e.g. rush order, delivery procedure) that need to be
define? Your discussion should also explain whether these rules will be agreed upon
in advance of the negotiation or evolve over time.

If time is short, should you negotiate over procedural issues before the "official"
negotiation?
10. Opening Position

What will be your opening position? Why?

Most experienced negotiations will come into a negotiation to first exchange information,
establish a relationship and size up the other side. consequently, the first offer is usually not
launched at the opening of the negotiation. Still, someone at sometime needs to make an
initial proposal. There are advantages to going first as well as waiting. There are advantages
and disadvantages to high versus realistic first offers.

11. Concessions

What concessions are you willing to make? Why?

Concessions are an extremely important component of a negotiation. They transmit

information about the likelihood that a deal will eventually be struck. The pattern of your
concessions over time indicates who claims the most value. One rule of thumb is that the
concession should be 1/3 the way between the latest offer and your last offer. One way to
deduce who is claiming the most value is to plot the concessions that were made. For
example, your opening offer may be to sell the business for $1,000,000 outright. You may
then sell for $900,000 over 10 years.

12. Closing the Deal

What is needed to tie down the deal?

To tie down or wrap up a negotiation is to get a commitment from the other party or
parties. This minimally involves asking for a verbal commitment to the proposed terms, "do
we have a deal?" If compliance is important, it may also include:

Drafting a written memorandum of agreement.

Defining what performance and nonperformance means.

Building in milestones into the agreement or identifying concrete deliverables.

Specifying process for modifying the agreement.

What constitutes a breach and how will it handled short of court action?

13. Measuring the Utility

 How will you measure the utility of the deal ?

The evaluative component of a negotiation is often lacking -- particularly if a negotiator has

not established evaluative criteria in advance of the negotiation. To assess the utility of a
deal you can use hard as well as soft criteria. Hard facts include such things as comparisons
to previous deals, comparisons against your objectives, comparisons with your needs (return
on investment, operation costs, cash flows). Soft criteria include your satisfaction with the
deal, an analysis of the amount of work that went into the deal, the outcome compared to
your expectations.

Strategic Planning in Negotiation

Identify constraints -- personal, time, costs and environment

Determine your competitive philosophy

Determine how this proposal fits in with long and short term organizational
objectives
Set basic goals (short and long term) for product and market

Determine trade-offs

Compleet fact finding, including:

Competitors business history

Motives
Business Workings
Proposals
Costs
Budget
Security
Negotiating style of competiton

Conduct a Worth Analysis

Determine value or usefulness to a person, organization, or stake holders.

Complete the Negotiation Preparation Questionnaire

Negotiation Worth Analysis

1. What is the "going concern" value of an asset or sale?

 2. How can known and unknown risks be account for in an estimate or on the books?

3. How accurate or objective can an accounting record be?

4. What do expressions like "sunk costs," "opportunity costs," "tooling amortization,"

"depreciation" and "overhead" really mean to the decision makers?

5. How can costs in one period be related to accomplishments in another?

6. What is the appropriate measure of profitability in the long and short run? Is it return on
costs, sales, investment or assets?

7. How are costs, profits and business volume related?

8. How should a new product be priced?

9. What does a purchase part really cost before it reaches the end user?

10. What should be the price of an item (including materials, structure, price, warranty)?

11. Cost analysis. What does an item actually cost and how is that cost related to worth?

Procedural Planning in Negotiation

12. Procedural Planning deals with organizing people, power, and information resources in
order to optimize negotiation performance.
13. Key Actions:

Determine who will be on the team, who will serve as staff support and special
assistants.
Analyze yourself -- motives, values, ethics, communication style.
Analyze your audience -- attitudes, communication styles, position, interests, cultural
norms and expectations.
Develop for and against arguments each interest.
Identify needed resources (personnel tools, training, facilities, third parties).
Determine how you will accredit your proposal.
Collect the items that will be in your briefing book.
Determine communication channels (vocal, charts, graphs, site visits).
Specify security.
Specific the content of the message -- what does audience need to know to take
desired action?
Determine which maneuvers will be most useful in obtaining your objectives.
Negotiation Maneuvers

Moves designed to create a situation in which goals can be reached and bargaining
position defended. May or may not be ethical.

TIMING

1. Patience. Willing to bear with the situation until uncertainty is resolved.

2. Stretch out. A deliberate decision to negotiate over a long period of time. Helps
to reduce uncertainty.

3. Deadlines. Sets a time limit on completing a task. Powerful tactic because it

imposes the possibility of real loss upon both parties. Effectiveness varies by
cultures.

4. Fait accompli. Unfamiliar tactic in business but well known to

diplomats. Based on the premise that once some things are done, they are hard
to undo.

INSPECTION

The question of truth is always a factor in negotiations. Both parties require

substantiation. Credibility can be enhanced in variety of ways.

1. Open Inspection. Here the parties ask to have full freedom to examine items,
facilities, equipment. A good counter to bluffing. Builds trust and confidence.

2. Limited Inspection. Access is provided but is restricted according to negotiated

guidelines.

3. Confession. Without being prodded, provides full disclosure. Helps to build

positive relationships. If one side discloses, the other side is more likely to do
the same.

4. Third party. Inspection is provided by a neutral parties. Used when trust is not
high between parties, but records, equipment or facilities need to be examined.

5. No admittance. Complete security of records is maintained. Useful to protect

trade secrets until negotiation is completed.
 6. Secured Inspection. Access is open but individuals sign an agreement in which
they agree to divulge any proprietary information.

AUTHORITY

By limiting authority, a negotiator may "buy" time and break down barriers and
resistance. Few agents have the stamina and dedication to withstand a persistent
onslaught. It can be countered by asking an adversary to state his or her
organizational status and authority or verify with others whether they have had
authority problems with the opponent.

1. Limited authority. Limiting authority restricts the right to make a final

decision. Can buy time and allow a second pair of eyes to re-examine the
negotiation.

2. Higher Authority. Mandatory approval can be used to impede or slow-down a

negotiation.

3. Missing person. The deliberate absence of a person with final authority can
give additional power to a negotiation team.

4. Arbitration. Deferring to a third party takes the negotiation out of the hands of
the parties to the negotiation. Typically, such deferment is used to break
stalemates. May be binding or non binding.

5. Mediation. Useful approach to insure that the parties to a negotiation "hear"

the party's point of view. May focus on fact finding, procedure
establishment. Still, you lose control over the process.

ASSOCIATIONS

In life, it makes sense to find third parties who are friends. Likewise, bargaining
power is strengthened through various types of associations.

1. Alliances. By building alliances, one's negotiation position is

strengthened. Power through numbers.

2. Associates. Friends may provide additional information or facts which can be

used in negotiations. When you share common friends, trust is often increased.
 3. Disassociates. Sharing mutual non-friends also increases trust in the same
manner as associates.

4. United Nations. Broad based alliances of interested parties are often used as an
offensive weapon in legal and diplomatic negotiations.

5. Bribery. Two-thirds of all firms have codes of ethics prohibiting extortion,

gifts and kickbacks. However, research on ethical behavior indicates that
"bribes" take many different forms. For example a cash payout is typically
considered unethical but taking a perspective client out to dinner typically is
not considered unethical. There are also cultural variations.

AMOUNT (PRICE, QUANTITY OR DEGREE)

A variety of tactics focus on the price, quantity or degree in which one

acquiesces. These tactics are commonly used to identify break even points and
discount parameters.

1. Fair and Reasonable. Focuses on the principle of equity. What is difficult is

that one's definition may not be the same as one's opponent.

2. Bulwarism. Occurs when one party who is unwilling to make any but minor
changes, starts by making a final offer to the other. This take it or leave
approach often results in "cornered" negotiators leaving.

3. Intersection. Simultaneous negotiation of multiple and divergent

contracts. Seeks to tie existing and future contracts into the content of ongoing
negotiation.

4. Budget Bogy. The package is tailored to the price. Order size may vary
depending upon the price. A seller should never accept the assumption that a
budget is firm without learning why another source of funding is not
available. Be careful about submitting prices for planning purposes. They
often are taken as firm.

5. Escalation. Ever increasing demands. May raise a price right before a final
negotiation for a real or non real reason. Opposition often fights to regain
original price rather than an even lower price.
 6. Reverse Auction. Making sure the opposition knows that you are negotiating
with more than one opponent. Creates a competitive negotiation crunch. Who
ever takes the offer first is the winner.

Negotiation Techniques

Techniques are not grand strategies but weapons in an arsenal. If well employed, they
provide a source of power. If poorly executed, they can create needless hostility.
Techniques include:

1. Agenda. Ordering of items to be negotiated directly affects outcome. Forces

decisions as to which issues and problems are worth talking about.

2. Questions. Used to clarify interests, gain time.

3. Location. Choose a neutral position or on your own terrain. Public places may
be helpful if you make a scene.

4. Nonverbal communication. Body language can convey what can not be said.

5. Threats & Promises. Works only once unless carried out. Size of threat or
promise determines their effectiveness. Know your BATNA

6. Concessions. The ideal negotiator opens with a high demand and makes
smaller concessions than their opponent. concessions tell us 1) what the
opponent wants; 2) how much is wanted; 3) how badly; and 4) what is willing
to be given up to get what is wanted.

7. Recess. Breaks the trend in negotiations. Gives time to gain perspective.

8. Repetition. Repeatedly bringing up an interest increases the likelihood that

they will deal with it.

9. Standards. Provides a reference point for discussion. Provides rules to live by

10. Secrecy measures. Helps to eliminate the exchange of information.

11. Media choices. Conveys negotiation intent and preparation through the
formality and thoroughness of presentation.
 12. Listening. Always useful. The more they talk, the more they feel you
understand and are like them.

13. Caucus. Gains time to establish perspective and/or rethink issues. Power can
come from numbers

14. Memorandums. Clarifies positions. Summarizes points in a manner that is

most favorable to you.

15. Go to the Balcony. Gives you time to lower tempers and approach the
problem more rationally.

16. Leaks. Allows one to test the waters.

Negotiations Positions and Interest

22 Questions to Help Separate

Positions from Interests
1. Correct me, if I am wrong...

2. We appreciate what you've done/ are trying to do.

3. Our concern is fairness

4. We would like to settle on the basis of principle, not on the basis of selfish
interest or power.

5. Trust is a separate issue.

6. Could I ask you a few questions to determine if my facts are correct?

7. What's the principle behind your action/proposal?

8. Let me see if I understand what you're saying...

9. Let me get back to you on that by _______

 10. Let me explain why I have trouble following some of your reasoning...

11. Is a trial basis/period possible?

12. If we disagree, the implications are...

13. What are you trying achieve by...

14. Could you reword your proposal?

15. Could you explain what we both can gain by your proposal?

16. Let me see if I understand your concern...

17. Would you consider...?

18. Could you explain what problems you see with my proposal?

19. How can we decide what is reasonable? what is fair?

20. Can we break the issue into more manageable parts?

21. I understand that's your position, but could you explain what it is you
are concerned about?

22. Why do you think that proposal/price is reasonable?

Negotiation Dirty Tricks

Dirty Tricks and What You Can Do

About Them
Dirty Trick Description / Example / Counter-Tactic
1. Phony Facts Typically the numbers appear valid but the assumptions
upon which the numbers or conclusions are based are
dubious.

Example: You need to buy an Airbus plane. We have far

fewer planes crashes and accidents than Boeing does.

Counter Tactic: Ask them to state their assumptions or

explain how they derived their numbers.

2. Higher Authority It is common for a negotiator to delay reaching an

agreement by claiming that his or her authority is
limited. The other party will become impatient and give in
to the earlier demands. Alternatively, it gives the negotiator
a out if the settlement is not desirable.

Example: "Well, your proposal sound interesting but I will

have to take it back to my boss for final approval."

Counter Tactic: Find out who the person with authority is

and negotiate with that person initially. Appeal to the person
ego and say, "So you don't have any authority. And I
thought you had some power."

3. Add-ons A common tactic used in sales negotiations. Negotiator

asks for a small concession and adds it on to the item
already being negotiated.

Example: ``I'll take the computer if you will throw in free

maintenance for a year."

Counter Tactic: Recognize the tactic for what it is. Give

them the add on if you would have anyway. If not, say no.
4. Personal Attacks A variety of tactics fall under the heading of personal
attacks. They are all designed to make you feel
uncomfortable and to make you forget about your real
negotiation objectives.

Example: They can attack your status, ignore you during a

negotiation, fail to make eye contact, or comment
negatively on your appearance, your intelligence , or
integrity.

Counter Tactic: Call it for what it is. Refocus the

negotiation on the problem at hand.

5. Good Guy / Bad Guy One person plays the good guy; the other the bad
guy. Good guy tries to keep negotiation moving in desired
direction. Bad guy imposes limits.

Example: "Joe is really tough to deal with in these situation.

Maybe if you can give in a little, I can talk some sense into
him."

Counter Tactic: Identify the tactic and discuss it openly.

6. Intimidation A variety of influence tactics fall into this category
including anger, fear, emotional ploys and guilt. They may
also claim there are legitimate channels to go through.

Example: "How dare you make such a low offer. You must
know nothing about the airline industry."

Counter tactic: Go to your balcony when you feel your

emotions taking over for your reason. When you are calmer
collect information to counter the intimidation.

7. Lock-in Tactics Communication strategies which force the other party to

make concessions.

Example: A foreign national publicly announces that it will

not withdraw its troops. Because the statement is public,
the other side gives in.

Counter Tactic: Recognize the ploy for what it is and

publicly acknowledge t as a tactic. Proactively, state that
such tactics will not be tolerated.
 8. Take it or leave it This is really not a negotiation approach. It is, however, an
approach to conducting business which blocks negotiating.

Example: ``This is the salary we are offering for the

position. If it is unacceptable, then we will have to select
someone else for the position."

Counter Tactic: Call their bluff. Ignore and keep on talking.

9. High Ball / Low Ball Negotiator starts with an extremely high or low opening
offer. Affects decision anchor point and adjustment from
the opening offer is usually insufficient. Risk is that other
party may consider negotiation is a waste of time.

Example: "We will offer you $100,000 for the house (when
it is worth $250,000)."

Counter Tactic: Identify in advance your BATNA. Have

objective information to counter their offer. Ask them to
justify the offer.

10. Bogey Negotiator pretends an important issue is not important.

Later in the negotiation, the item of value can be
traded. Useful if you can identify an issue that IS important
to the other side but of little value to your side.

Example: "Our budget only allows us to pay so much."

Counter Tactic: Never accept the assumption on face value.

Find out why the budget is fixed.

11. Chicken Negotiator combine a bluff with a purported action. It is a

high risk strategy. If the other side calls their bluff, they
must be willing to carry through with the action.

Example: ``If you don't accept our offer, we will close the
plant."

Counter Tactic: Ignore the bluff and keep on talking or call

their bluff.
12. Exaggerated Negotiators may intentionally describe interests, time
Assertions preference or needs one way when they want them to go
another way.

Example: "I've really got to have that item delivered by

Friday."

Counter Tactic: Call them on it. Give them what they want
if it is of low value to you and then leverage that to help get
what you want.

13. Threats A useful tactic if one party has the power to inflict relatively
large punishment on the other without substantial
retaliation. The threat must be believed and you must be
willing to follow through with the threat.

Example: "If that assignment is not completed by Friday, I

will fire you."

Counter Tactic: Make the threat salient and discuss the

ramifications.

14. Scoundrel An unethical maneuver. The scoundrel lures an opponent

into a deal by making an attractive offer. Once the other
person is mentally committed, the scoundrel reneges on the
deal and uses a variety of tactics to repudiate the deal
(higher authority , legal delays, lost paperwork).

Example: "Yes, we did have a deal but that was before I

knew you needed A and B and C. Those, of course, will be
additional costs."

Counter Tactic: Run, don't walk away at the first indication

that you are dealing with a scoundrel. If it is too late, get
the best legal help possible.
15. Scrambled Eggs The negotiator deliberately makes a deal complex to create
confusion.

Example: Car leasing agreements have come under attack

recently for being so complex that individuals do not
understand what they are really paying for the leased car.

Counter Tactic: Admit the negotiation is becoming to

complex and go to your balcony until you have time to
analyze the situation.

16. Foot in the door The negotiator gets you to make a small concession. He or
she then builds from that base to get you to make more
concessions.

Example: "If the price is right, will you buy a car from me
today?"

Counter Tactics: Know what your negotiation latitude is in

advance and stay within that range.

17. Deadlines Imposing a time limit often sets the boundaries on a

negotiation. Too often people accept another's time
deadline as their own.

Example: ``I need to have your decision on this matter by

Friday at 5 p.m."

Counter tactic: Determine why this deadline is important.

Explain and impose your own deadline.
Top 10 Negotiation Dirty Tricks

1. Physical intimidation.
Psychologically destabilise the other party by sitting close, leaning across the table, sitting in a
bigger chair, positioning them with the sun in their eyes.
2. Sow a bad seed.
Drop lots of hints about the strategic context or operational situation that isn't true, to structure
expectations of the other party.
3. Deliberate misunderstanding.
Deliberately misinterpret a point to your advantage in the hope that the other party misses it or is
too timid to correct them e.g. incorrect summary.
4. The vow of silence.
Refuse to give any information or explain any statement/proposal that you make.
5. Giggling school girl.
Undermine the other party's confidence in their position/proposal by passing notes to each other
look up and snigger.
6. Good cop bad cop.
Apply psychological pressure with this old classic. The intended effect is that good cop gets
incremental concessions as a result of bad cop's behaviour.
7. Chinese water torture.
Continuous repetition of the same demand regardless of response (unless it's 'yes') in the hope
that you will grind the other party down or at least squeeze extra concessions out of them.
8. Going nuclear.
Dismiss relatively small demands with disproportionate sanctions.
9. The shudder.
React incredulously to a proposal "you can't be serious, that's no where near realistic".
10. Pickpocket.
Deliberately take a little extra post agreement e.g. pay late or change specification.
How to Beat These Dirty Negotiation Tactics
Negotiation styles have been researched and discussed a lot in the recent
period. Countless courses dedicated to the importance of collaboration in
negotiations have been held, but even skilled negotiators may sometimes find
themselves sitting in front of their counterparts, not knowing how to deal with
someone who is not interested in coming up with a win-win solution, but only
in manipulating and defeating them.

Luckily for you, this type of headache causing problems can be avoided by
following efficient tips.
Shock effect
Regardless of how much youve struggled to show the value of the product that
you sell, customers may turn to the shock effect whenever you tell them the
price. If you happen to be in this situation, you should by no means
make unnecessary concessions, regardless of how much you wish to reach an
agreement. Instead, you should try to point out all the benefits that the product
will bring. Some people are afraid of telling their clients that the price of the
product indicates its quality, but the truth is that the affirmation is right. After all,
everybody gets what they pay for.

Ongoing discount
Your counterpart may sometimes try to make you compromise by pointing out
that theyre willing to sign the contract as long as you solve a certain issue. You
should never let yourself tricked by this scheme, because once you solve that
issue they will come up with others. Once you start playing this game, chances
are you will end up making more compromises that youve planned.

Boss knows best

Negotiators may sometimes do their best to convince their counterparts, only
to eventually figure out that the individuals involved in the negotiation cannot
make decisions on their own. Theyre usually sent to negotiate and acquire as
many discounts as possible, but they cannot decide whether they will buy your
product or not. If you want to avoid this type of situation, you should simply
make sure that the person with whom you negotiate is authorized to make a
decision. If theyre not, you should do your best to talk with the CEO who
supervises the selling.

Fake deadline
Avoid making a decision if you see that your customer pressures you without
having a good reason. Most people who use this strategy try to make you accept
an unfair deal, by threatening that they will soon turn their attention to another
company. The greatest challenge with which negotiators have to deal is that of
negotiating with impatient customers.

Delays
Regardless of how well the negotiation ends, you may notice that your customer
tries to deliberately postpone making a decision. Bear in mind that there are
several clever customers who are aware of the fact that you have already spent
some money on the sales process, and they will use this fact as a method to
talk you into making additional concessions.

Suddenly cold
You may have noticed that some clients seem very willing to close the deal, but
they eventually act as if they lost their interest. This technique is also used by
employers when they want to hire somebody. They let the candidate struggle
for the position, they repeat that theyre willing to hire him, but the truth is that
they cannot afford to pay the salary that he wants. This technique eventually
helps them accomplish their goal, as the employee usually ends up making
compromises.

Wrongful summary
Your counterparts may summarize the terms you have agreed on by
misrepresenting several parts of the deal in their favor. However, you wont
discover the discrepancies unless you listen carefully to their summary. Your
duty is to take notes and make sure that every single word included in the
summary describes exactly what you have agreed upon.

New player
You may sometime notice that the person you have negotiated with has been
replaced. Even though the new person should be aware of previous
agreements, there are cases in which new negotiators force you to take
everything from scratch. If you happen to be in this situation, asking another
 negotiator to take your part is definitely a good idea, as discussing the same
issues over and over again can be quite annoying.

The best way of making sure that all parties agree upon a win-win solution is by
trying not to take anything personal. Many negotiators use dirty tactics, but this
doesnt mean that they have something personal with you.

The article is authored by Davis Miller. He is a skillful freelance writer interested

in writing on small businesses and technology. He also has a
site thegappartnership.com.hk. They develop negotiation skills to change
behavior and achieve measurable results through training workshops.

15 Dirty Negotiation Tricks and How to

Avoid Them
Here is part 1 of a two-part series on setting rates and getting properly compensated on your gigs and
sessions. Today, we will discuss 15 of the nasty tactics some clients will try to get your rates down or
take advantage of your time and skill.

Dealing With Trickery

Sometimes people will try to manipulate you to get what they want in the negotiation process.
(duh) These tricks definitely apply in any freelance market such as artists, designers and
photographers as well as musicians. Here are a few tips on spotting these tactics:
1. Withholding pertinent information. Anything that would change your price or put doubts in
your mind needs to be on the table. Ask questions, and dont accept vague answers. I once accepted a
gig, not knowing that it was 4+ hours away. I only found out on the day before about the travel. If I
had backed out then, based on the deception, I would have been slandered as unreliable. They
wouldnt have told everyone what they did only my response. My only choice: hold my nose and do
the gig.
2. Getting a commitment from you before dropping the bomb of the low price or unpleasant
details. Often these calls start with Are you available on X? to which I respond, Not sure I will
have to check What kind of gig is it? Whats the pay? If I say Sure, Im free I may have to tell
them no anyway. An awkward moment, for sure. This is their purpose in asking without telling.
3. Calls at odd hours. This seems far-fetched, but it has happened many times to me: I get a call at
7am or some other non-standard time to check on my availability. Usually the above tricks are also
in the call. The purpose here is to get you while you are half-asleep and get a commitment. (I know..
you think Im making this up.)
4. Last minute changes: These sudden changes in the gig were probably there all along, but you
werent told because you would have wanted more money or turned down the gig. Hard to dodge this
one other than by learning who does this and not working with them again.
5. Belittling your value: You will get this from time-to-time when you quote a rate. You may get
something like: Youve got to be kidding! The rule here is to stay calm in the face of this insult.
Either they are a complete novice (and a rude one) or they are pulling this on purpose. Stick to your
guns and be willing to politely decline the gig.
6. Fake price comparisons: Joe Blow charges $X is the opener here. First, dont slam Joe Blow,
speak highly of him, but dont match the rate. You can try to explain why you charge what you do, but
in the end, you probably will have to tell them to hire Joe, and that they will be happy with him. They
were probably lying about Joes rate and will either come back to you or pay Joe his real rate.
7. Fake referrals: Often they will drop a name of a friend or colleague in order to put you at ease, and
even to make you want to do the gig in order to work with some friends. Once I was contacted for a
dubious gig and told that the rest of the band consisted of some good friends and great players I
knew. When I got further into the situation, I realized they had been brought in thinking I was
already on board. In the end, none of us did the gig, since it was a deception.
8. Getting offended by your questions. Its appropriate to ask about the pay and conditions. Some
people will act offended when you ask, as if you are insulting them. Be advised: this is deliberate
tactic, not true emotion. Sure, I do gigs with trusted friends where I really dont know the pay, but it
takes a long time to earn that trust. Furthermore, they wouldnt be offended if I did ask. Watch for
this one.
9. Wanting endless Extras such as writing the charts, providing equipment for others, giving
people rides, finding recordings etc. Often there are suddenly things needed to save the gig that only
you can do. Now you are in the position of putting everybody out of work unless you do this unpaid
stuff. Once this is in motion, the only way out is to do what is needed and cut your losses. People only
get this from me once.
10. Bogus quantity discounts. I once had a client forcefully ask me if I could cut my
rates substantially because I was recording two projects for him. My response was that my rate was
my rate. Economy of scale doesnt apply to hours of our lives, only to mass-produced widgets. He
then resorted to dropping the names of some other studios he could use instead. (See fake price
comparison above) To which I responded that he would get great results with my competitor, and if
that better suited his budget, he should go there. I ended up with the work (though it was high-
maintenance.)
11. Finding your weakness: Either they want a huge list of credits to prove you are worthy, or
perhaps some magic piece of gear. I had a client ask me Do you have a Neumann mic for my
voice? I dont have one, and I suggested a rental. What he really wanted was to put me on the
defensive, so he could pay less.
12. Fake exposure is a way of making the gig seem like a career-builder you would do for any price.
Usually the big names that you are expecting either dont show up or are not paying attention. I
have played for a lot of celebrities, and seldom has it gone anywhere. Networking is great, but when
somebody else is taking your money and time, it rarely pans out.
13. Mystery bartering (especially after the fact) is a way to cut your rates. Usually the return favor
never comes, and you give up. Now, I have bartered many times with friends, and always with
mutual prior agreement. This is fine if you trust one another. But make sure there is a very clear end
to it, at which point you are square.
14. Plain old pushiness: Artists are usually kind people and non-confrontational. Sometimes we give
in simply because somebody else has such a strong, aggressive personality. It takes a while to develop
the personal gravity to fend off these assaults. Experience is the key here.
15. Pathos and guilt: Some people give you a long story about how hard things are and how little they
have to spend. Usually this is brought up far enough into the negotiation that it would be awkward to
shut it down. They know this, and are counting on you doing them a favor and hooking them up
with a ridiculously low price. Oddly, these people often make a 180 after the prices are set and
become the most demanding clients. Beware.
Im sure you can think of many more examples. Music can be a shady business, and we have to be
ready for that. Most of the time my negotiations are perfectly pleasant, but these things happen a lot,
and you can feel very frustrated if you arent prepared.
Questions:
Have you been taken advantage of in the negotiation process?
What tactics did they use on you, and did they work?
Next time, we will discuss setting your standard rates, and how to work within a dynamic pricing
market.
The Accidental Negotiator
01 Prepare
Below youll find the posts at The Accidental Negotiator from the preparing to negotiate
category. I highly recommend you read each of them if youre serious about becoming a
successful negotiator.
The Blue Power Negotiating System starts off by having you do some homework. No, no, this
isnt like when you were back in school and no, nobody is going to be grading it. Negotiation is
not all about negotiation styles and negotiating techniques. Instead, what you are going to be
doing is some research on who youll be negotiating with and trying to nail down just exactly
what kind of deal you are going to want to be walking away from this principled negotiation
with.
You are going to be amazed at just how much more confident you are going to feel and how
much more smoothly your next negotiation is going to proceed once you master these
negotiation preparation steps
If you have suggestions for posts youd like to see me do or information youd love to see
provided, please feel free to contact me and let me know.

1-When You Negotiate On The Phone, You Always Need To Prepare

2-Master A Phone Negotiation Using A Checklist
3-Traps Caused By Negotiating On The Telephone
4-In Negotiating, Loose Lips Sink Ships
5-The Secret To Preparing For A Negotiation: POST
6-The Power Of Bringing Documentation To A Negotiation
7-Getting The Information That You Need In Order To Prepare For A Negotiation
8-What Does A Negotiating Game Plan Really Look Like?
9-In A Negotiation, Its Not What You Know, But What People Think You Know
10-The Power Of Actual Knowledge
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1-When You Negotiate On The Phone, You Always Need To Prepare
One of the nice things about being an adult who engages in negotiations is that we are not
required to know everything. A negotiation is not like an 8th grade history test where were
going to be expected to regurgitate everything that we know about what products Brazil exports.
We get to use notes. However, what notes we use and how we use them can determine how our
next negotiation turns out.
Phone Negotiations Require You To Come Prepared
Phone negotiations are a bit different from a standard face-to-face negotiation. We all have a
tendency to treat them just a bit more casually no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating
techniques are going to be used. We get dressed up when were going to be sitting across the
table from the other party, we dont do the same when were going to be negotiating over the
phone.
You know that when you are going to be negotiating on the phone, you need to be well
organized. This means that you need to take the time before the call starts and make sure that you
have everything ready and easy to get to. The good news about all of this is that there is a very
good chance that the person that you are going to be negotiating with will not be as prepared as
you are. They are probably going to be more casual about this negotiation than you are because
its happening over the phone. This means that they will probably show up ill-prepared to
negotiate with you.
The fact that there is a good chance that the other party will not be well prepared to negotiate
with you over the phone is a good news for you. Any sort of negotiation that requires a lot of
reference material is not a good candidate for a phone negotiation in the first place, but if it is
going to happen, then you need every advantage that you can get. Take the time to make sure
that you have your act together and when the negotiation starts, youll already have an advantage
over the other side.
What It Means To Be Completely Prepared For A Phone Negotiation
If we agree that being prepared when the other side is not prepared can help to make the results
of a telephone negotiation work out the way that we want them to, then the next thing that we
need to do is to find out just exactly what we need to do. One of the most important things that
you have to realize is that were not just talking about all of those pieces of paper that youll
need.
Instead, what is really important is that you have taken the time to mentally think through what is
going to be required of you during this negotiation. Were not just talking about making sure that
you have all of the paperwork that every negotiation requires. Instead, by anticipating
everything that you may need you have taken the time to make sure that it will be available to
you when you need it.
The simplest example of what we are talking about here is if this negotiation has a lot of numbers
associated with it. At the very least, you are going to need to make sure that you have a good
calculator. You may want to have a computer with spreadsheet or even go so far as to have a
colleague who is good with numbers by your side. No matter what this negotiation is going to
require, make sure that youve anticipated it and that you are ready when the call comes!
What All Of This Means For You
For some odd reason, the care and preparation that comes naturally to us when we are preparing
to negotiate with someone face-to-face seems to fly out the window when we are involved in a
phone principled negotiation. We should all realize that a phone negotiation requires the same
level of organization as a face-to-face negotiation.
One of the most important things that we need to realize when are involved in a phone
negotiation is that the other side of the negotiation more than likely has not done a good job of
preparing for the negotiation. With this knowledge, you can be in control of the negotiation.
Make sure that youve done your homework prior to the negotiation starting and youll have a
significant advantage over the other side of the table.
Being prepared for a phone negotiation means more than having a big stack of paper in front of
you when the call comes in. You also have to think about what will be covered in the
negotiationbefore it starts. Making sure that everything that youll need is available to you when
the call comes in is your responsibility. Get this taken care of and youll be set to get everything
that you need out of your next phone negotiation.
A Sales Negotiators Friend: The Telephone
Whats your mental picture of a typical sales negotiation? When you close your eyes do you see
a lushly carpeted board room with a large oval table in the center and padded leather chairs all
around it? If so, then in most cases you are sadly mistaken.
An amazing number of sales negotiations occur over the telephone. Everyone has one and in
fact in this day and age of mobile phones we all seem to have more than one phone. Given that
by using the phone you can reach someone directly at almost any time, phones have become an
important tool in negotiating sales.
However, as with any tool, a phone can be a danger to any negotiators hope of success. Using a
phone to negotiate can be quick and easy, but thats actually part of the problem. Im not telling
you to not use the phone, Im just saying that you need to watch out when you do. Here are some
of the things that can go wrong when you use the phone to negotiate a sale:
Deal / No Deal: Because you cant look the other side in the eye when you are negotiating with
them on the phone, its entirely possible that you may conclude the call thinking that you have a
deal when you really dont.
Can You Hear Me Now?: What you think that you are saying is not necessarily what the other
side is hearing. However, since you are on a phone, there is no way for you to realize that they
have gotten the wrong message.
What Did You Say?: Often when we are negotiating on the phone, we are out and about.
Although we may reach agreement, it wont count until such time as we write it down. That may
be hours later and what we write down may be different from what we agreed to.
Once again, the phone is a powerful sales negotiation tool; however, you have to be careful how
you use it in order to make sure that you dont get burned.
Have you ever used the phone as part of a sales negotiation? Did you have any communications
problems? Were the problems on your side or on the other side? When did you first realize that
there was a problem? How did you finally resolve this problem? Leave me a comment and let me
know what you are thinking.
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2-Master A Phone Negotiation Using A Checklist
Can you picture yourself talking on the phone? If you are like me, its generally a scene of mass
confusion. Sure Im talking on the phone, but there is a very good chance that Im doing a number of
other things at the same time. These can include walking / running to get to some other place, trying to
either put things into a bag or take them out, and I might even be using my mobile phones speaker and
trying to accomplish other things on the phone while having a conversation. Just imagine if you are trying
to negotiate on the phone using different negotiation styles and negotiating techniques! Looks like you
are going to need the help of a checklist
What You Need To Accomplish Before You Use A Checklist
Yes, using a checklist the next time that you find yourself negotiating on the phone is probably a good
idea. However, its what you do before you find yourself in this position that will really matter. All of
this starts when the other side first gives you a call.
When you receive this call, you need to take action. Your goal during this initial call is going to be to
attempt to collect as much information as possible. The reason that youll be doing this is because youll
want to be prepared to discuss everything that they want to cover. What youd really like to uncover is
exactly what their goals during the negotiation will be: what price do they want, how many units, etc.
Using A Checklist As A Part Of A Phone Negotiation
Once youve collected the information that you are going to need in order to prepare for the upcoming
telephone based negotiation, this is when you are going to have to sit down and get busy creating a
checklist. The reason that youre going to want to create a checklist is because when the negotiation
starts, you arent going to want to leave anything out.
The checklist that you create needs to list the items that you want to cover during the negotiation in
priority order. Once you have created your checklist, youre ready to make the call to negotiate. During
the negotiation youll need to make sure that you have your checklist to provide you with an agenda for
the call. If youve included enough information, then your checklist can provide you with whatever
backup youll need during the call.
What All Of This Means For You
One of the drawbacks to negotiating a deal on the phone is that we dont have to be on our best behavior.
Since the other side cant see us, we all too often spend our time while we are on the phone doing a lot of
other tasks. This can be distracting and we may forget to do important things that will be critical in order
for us to get the deal that we want.
What we need to do is treat a phone principled negotiation as a two-step process. We need to use the first
phone call with the other side as an opportunity to collect as much information as we can from them about
what they would like to negotiate. Well then use this information to create a checklist. Well use this
checklist the next time that we call them and it will allow us to make sure that we cover everything that
we wanted to cover during the negotiations.
I can only speak for myself, but I am more than willing to admit that I am not perfect. A typical
negotiation can be a complex undertaking and there are a lot of moving parts involved. Trying to conduct
a negotiation using a phone just makes everything a little bit harder. Thats why using a checklist can
be such an important thing. Checklists allow us to go into a negotiation knowing what we want to
accomplish and allow us to make sure that weve taken care of everything before we wrap things up. Take
the time to make a checklist the next time you find yourself involved in a phone negotiation.

Negotiators Need Both A Checklist And An Organizer

Every negotiator should be using a deal book in order to keep track of all of the 100s of tiny
details that go on in every negotiation. So that you dont forget or overlook anything, your deal
book can act as both a checklist for the negotiation and as an organizer for your thoughts.
Deciding to do this is a great first step, the challenge comes when you sit down to do it just
exactly how do you use this thing?
What Goes Into A Deal Book To Help Organize A Negotiation?
So lets say that youve got yourself a deal book (really just a spiral bound notebook). Now
what? Many of the negotiators that I talk with are baffled as to exactly what they need to do
with their deal book in order to get the maximum benefit from it.
At its heart, a deal book is where you keep your records about your next negotiation. What this
means for you is that as you start to prepare for the negotiation, everything that happens gets
its own place in your deal book. This will include such things as you taking time to write down
what you hope to get out of the negotiations, any and all telephone numbers and addresses of the
people who will be involved in the negotiations, and every piece of random info about the
negotiations that you happen to pick up.
The list of what you can record in your deal book is actually quite lengthy. It can include such
items as the dates and places where negotiations occurred. Youd want to note down who
participated in the negotiations on a given date. During the negotiation, there will of course
be open issues that are currently not resolved. Your deal book is a great place to note these so
that you are aware of what has been resolved and what still needs to be taken care of.
How Do You Use A Deal Book As A Checklist?
Your deal book is where you get an opportunity to keep a running diary of how the negotiation is
going. When new information is learned, you should note it in your deal book. Additionally,
how you react to this new information should also be noted.
Your goals for the negotiation should be a part of your deal book. By doing this, you can
create a checklist of what you want to get out of the negotiations. As you achieve your individual
goals, you can start to check off each one of them. With a little luck by the end of the negotiation
youll have eventually completed your entire checklist.
One of the most important uses of your deal book checklist is when there is a need for someone
else to take over a negotiation. There can be many reasons that this happens, but generally it
can cause a great deal of confusion on both sides of the table and often sets the negotiations back
a bit. However, if you can hand your deal book off to the person who is taking over, then they
will be able to quickly come up to speed on where things stand and what has already been done.
You improve their odds of being able to successfully reach the negotiation goals that you had set
for yourself.
What Does All Of This Mean For You?
Each and every principled negotiation that we are involved in, no matter how large it may appear
to be from the outside or what negotiation styles or negotiating techniques are being used, is a
complex beast. With multiple people involved, different dates, agreements, and
deliverables things can get pretty complicated very quickly. What every negotiator needs in
order to keep things organized is a deal book.
A deal book allows all of the details having to do with a negotiation to be kept in one place. In
the deal book you can keep track of dates, places, participants, and meeting agendas.
Additionally, using a well-kept deal book allows the planning and execution of a negotiation to
be traded off among different people without the loss of any information.
No, creating and maintaining a deal book is not easy to do. However, the benefits are huge. For
the next negotiation that you will be involved in take the time to create a deal book that will help
you organize your negotiation and which can be used as a checklist. When youre able to walk
away with the deal that you wanted, youll be able to thank you deal book.
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3-Traps Caused By Negotiating On The Telephone
Lets face it attempting to conduct a negotiation over the phone is really never a good idea.
When we are negotiating face-to-face with someone, we are in control of the situation. We have
our notes, we have our support staff, and we have the ability to look the other side of the table
straight in the eye and determine what they are really thinking. When we move the negotiation to
the phone, all of these things go away. Using the phone for a negotiation introduces a lot of traps
that you need to be aware of.
Agendas
Take just a moment and think about how one of your face-to-face negotiations generally goes.
You spend some time thinking about the outcome that you would like to achieve from this
negotiation. You then work your ways backwards to arrive at the starting point of the
negotiation. What you now have is a workable agenda for you to follow. When someone calls
you on the phone and launches into a negotiation with you, you dont have the benefit of this
preplanned agenda. You are at a disadvantage.
So how should you handle the situation where a person calls you up out of the blue and wants to
negotiate with you? Its actually fairly simple. What you are going to want to do is to ask them at
the start of the conversation to tell you exactly what they are going to want to talk about. This is
probably going to take awhile and during this time you are going to want to do nothing but listen
to what they have to say. It will be ok to ask them to clarify a point if you dont understand it, but
other than that just make noises confirming that youve heard what they have said.
Once they have completed laying out the agenda for the call that they want to have with you, you
need to tell them that right now is not the best time for you to have a call with them. Tell them
that youll call them back when you free up. Once you get them off of the line, you can take as
long as you like to call them back: an hour, a day, or a week. When you do finally call them
back, youll have an agenda for the call and you will have caught them off guard and this will
place you in a position of power.
The Things That We Forget
Negotiating is hard work. There are a lot of different things that get discussed and negotiations
can stretch over a long time. What this means for us is that it is all too easy for us to forget some
important point during a negotiation. When we are negotiating face-to-face, we attempt to solve
this problem by taking careful notes or assigning the job of scribe to one of our team members.
In the world of telephone negotiations, who calls who often determines who in in charge of the
negotiation. This is why you are always going to want to be the one who is placing the call. The
person who receives the call generally turns out to be the less organized person. As you talk with
the person that youve called, what you are going to discover is that as they talk more and more,
they will start to forget things this is what happens when you are not prepared for a phone
negotiation.
What you are going to want to do is to make sure that you are always ready to negotiate. You are
going to have to train yourself to be organized. This means that you are going to want to have
easy access to an agenda for the call, any notes that you might need, a calculator if that is what
youll need, and a way to take notes during the call. You need to understand that the more
prepared you are, the better your chances of getting what you want out of the negotiations are.
What All Of This Means For You
When it comes to negotiating, the phone is not your friend. However, in the day and age in
which we are living, we need to understand that more and more negotiations are taking place via
the phone. What this means for us is that we now need to adapt our styles and learn to avoid
telephone traps.
When we negotiate face-to-face, we always have an agenda to follow. This is not the case when
someone calls us up and wants to negotiate via phone. We need to ask them what they want to
discuss and after they have shared that with us tell them that now is not a good time for us. This
will allow us to call them back at some point in time and will put us in the drivers seat. When
we do call them back, well be prepared and we will have taken steps to make sure that we wont
forget anything.
We cant stop negotiating on the phone theres just too many of them and its just too easy to
do. However, we can realize that there are a number of traps that you can fall into when you are
negotiating on the phone and we can take steps to avoid them. Keep these in mind and your next
phone negotiation will turn out better for you!
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4-In Negotiating, Loose Lips Sink Ships
Any negotiator knows that in a negotiation, information is power. The more information that you
share with the other side of the table, the more power you are handing over to them. Just because
you know this, does not necessarily mean that the rest of your team also understands it. As a
negotiator, its your responsibility to make sure that your team doesnt end up sharing more than
they should with the other side.
Why Sharing Too Much Is A Bad Idea
If we can all agree that having more power is a good thing and giving power away to the other
side during the course of a negotiation is a bad thing, then clearly keeping your mouth shut is
something that you are going to want to work on. However, what we can often forget is that
were not the only ones participating in a negotiation. We almost always have some support
staff.
This is why it is your responsibility as a negotiator to work with your team before the
negotiations start. What you are going to want to do is to tell them in the nicest way possible that
they are to keep their mouths shut! There can be a lot of different types of people helping you out
accountants, lawyers, etc. No matter how important, or not, the person is, you are going to need
to explain to them that if they open their mouth at the wrong time and blurt something out, it
could derail what you are trying to accomplish during the negotiations.
You are going to want to work out an agreement to keep silent with everyone who will be on
your team. Note that this does not just mean the important people. Youre going to need to sit
down and identify everyone who will be participating so that you can make sure that nothing
slips out unintentionally. The people on your team wont be trying to cause you problems;
however, its all to easy for things to inadvertently slip out.
What You Need To Do In Order To Keep Things Under Wraps
This doesnt mean that you dont want them to talk at all during a negotiation. Instead, what you
want them to do is to speak very carefully. This means that youll want to agree with them on
very specific statements that they can make. Additionally, youll want to coordinate with them
how they answer questions that youll be asking them during the negotiation.
All negotiators have a certain set of things that they are good at. Likewise, we also have things
that can be considered to be our weaknesses. The reason that we invite other people to come to a
negotiation with us is so that they can help us to cover up our weaknesses while at the same time
not diminishing our negotiating power.
If the other side doesnt take the time to coach their staff to not reveal things to you, youll need
to keep your ears open for pieces of information that you may not have. If they reveal a defect in
something to you, youll need to take the time to work this new knowledge into your
negotiations.
What All Of This Means For You
In every negotiation, knowledge is power and wed all like to have as much power as possible.
As negotiators we all know that we need to be very careful when we are dealing with the other
side of the table. They will always be on the lookout for us to say something that will reveal
things that we didnt mean to share with them. However, it turns out that the members of our
team might do the same thing.
Our team members wont mean to undermine our negotiating position. However, in an attempt to
be helpful they may end up spilling the beans. It is our responsibility to make sure that this does
not happen. This means that before the negotiation starts, its going to be your responsibility to
coach your team to keep their mouths shut unless you ask them a specific question.
Guarding your information during a negotiation is the responsibility of every negotiator. Even if
we do a good job of it, we have to take steps to ensure that every member of our team
understands that they need to help keep our secrets safe. Taking the time to review this topic with
the team before a negotiation starts will go a long way in keeping negotiating power in your
hands.
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5-The Secret To Preparing For A Negotiation: POST
In order to be successful in your next negotiation, you are going to have to show up ready to do
battle with the other side. The big question that most of us face when we are preparing for a
negotiation is just exactly what should we be doing in order to get ready? I mean, theres a lot
that we could be doing, but are we forgetting anything? It turns out that there is a simple way to
remember what you need to be doing and it uses the acronym POST
Use POST To Get Ready For Your Next Negotiation
In order for both you and the other members of your negotiating team to get ready for the
upcoming negotiation, you need to make sure that you do all of the preparation that will be
required. In order to make sure that everything has been taken care of, you need to remember
the acronym POST.
POST stands for Persons, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics. These are the most important
issues that you are going to have to create working notes for and for which youll have to have
clear plans for before you enter your next negotiation.
Persons Attending The Negotiation
Every person participating in a negotiation is playing a role. Your job is going to be to make sure
that you understand why they are there and what they hope to accomplish by being there.
Before the negotiations start, you will need to take the time to list out everyone that you know
will be there and the role that you believe that they will play.
Negotiations are dynamic things. This means that there will probably be people in attendance
that you had not expected to be there. When this happens, its going to be your job to have a
discussion with them in order to find out what they are doing there. Once youve identified this,
add this information to your notes and make sure that you include them in the discussions at the
right time.
Objective
As a negotiator, you always have to know what your objective isbefore entering into a
negotiation. Objectives have two key characteristics. They are measurable and they are
obtainable.
The reason that you need to know what your objective for a meeting is because it will help you
to set a valid expectation for what youll be able to get out of a meeting. In most cases, a
negotiation wont be settled in a single meeting. Knowing what your objective is for the first
meeting means that you wont try to reach a deal in the first meeting. Instead, youll spend your
time laying the groundwork for the next meeting.
Strategies
The interesting thing about strategies is that before a negotiation starts, you have the opportunity
to decide which strategy you are going to use. You have many options: you can choose
enthusiasm, boredom, excitement, good cop / bad cop, etc.
What strategy youll use may depend on how many people you have on your negotiating team.
When you have two or more people, youll have a lot more options for how you can proceed.
When you choose a strategy that you want to use in a negotiation, youll have to be sure to
inform everyone on your team so that they can support this strategy during the negotiation.
Tactics
Tactics has everything to do with deciding who on your team will be doing what during the
negotiations. Your tactics need to both be planned and communicated within your team prior
to the start of the negotiations.
Knowing what role you and the other members of your team are going to be playing is going to
key to your ability to get the deal that you want. Youll need to know what role the other
people on your team will be playing in order for you to be able to play off of them during the
negotiations.
What All Of This Means For You
Negotiations can be tricky things. There are a lot of issues that need to be discussed and a lot of
agreements that need to be made. As negotiators, one of the most important things that we need
to learn to do is to prepare correctly for our next negotiation.
Simply because there can be so much going on in a principled negotiation, we need to make sure
that we dont forget to do any of the required steps. What this means is that we need a way to
remember everything that we have to do. The acronym POST (Persons, Objectives, Strategies,
and Tactics) can provide us with a simple way to remember everything that we need to do.
Although it can be easy to get caught up in all of the negotiation styles and negotiating
techniques that are used in a negotiation, professional negotiators know that most negotiations
are decided long before they even start. The side that shows up the best prepared is the one
that will be able to get the best deal. Use the POST technique to make sure that you are the best
prepared side when it comes time for your next negotiation.

Tactics 101: Giving Away Nothing & Becoming A Litterbug

In the world of negotiating, the actual process of negotiating is very much an art. In order to be
good at it, a master sales negotiator needs to have a complete collection of negotiating tactics at
his or her disposal. Not every negotiation will call for every tactic to be used, but as any auto
mechanic can tell you, having the right tool for the job can make your life a lot easier.
Empty Concessions Make The Perfect Gift
As a negotiator you will be expected to make concessions to the other side of the table during the
negotiation in order to keep making progress towards an eventual deal. However, sometimes you
may find yourself in a bind they want a lower price and you cant go any lower than you
already are.
It is in cases like this that empty concessions can come in quite handy. Ultimately, the value of
any given concession is determined by how the side that is getting it views it. This means that by
identifying a negotiation point that means very little to you, but which means a great deal to the
to the other side of the table, you will have found the perfect empty concession.
When you find yourself backed into a negotiating corner, an empty concession is exactly the
kind of tool that you can use to increase the other sides level of satisfaction without having to
give in on a point that is important to you.
Littering Really Isnt All That Bad
In some negotiations, it can seem as though the other side of the table holds all of the cards you
are at their mercy. However, this is never the case. The concept of littering on their
lawn simply means that you have the ability to make statements that will cause them to
pause and realize that what you are offering them has more value than they had originally
thought.
The following four examples show how negotiating litter can be made to work for you:
Value: pointing out to the other side that yes, they could strike a deal with another company for
a lower price; however, they would end up getting less value from the deal for the following
reasons
The Price Is Right: sitting down with the other side and reviewing both your costs and your
prices can quickly show them that you really are making a reasonable amount of money on this
deal not too much, not too little.
Were Different: point out why comparing your offer to another firms offer is not really an
apples-to-apples comparison. Show that your firm actually provides many additional services.
Total Cost: just focusing on the price of the item being bought or sold can be misleading.
Taking the time to discuss all of the costs of the deal, both before and after the sale, can show
that your total costs are lower than the competition.
What All Of This Means For You
Nobody is ever born a top-notch sales negotiator. Instead, we all improve a little bit during every
negotiation that we are involved in. A key part of this improvement is making sure that we know
all of the tactics that well need.
Concessions that mean very little to you, but which mean a great deal to the other side of the
table are a fantastic tool to use when you find yourself backed into a corner. Casting doubt in
the minds of the other side by littering on their carefully planned reasoning can cause the other
side to become willing to reach a deal much quicker.
They say that knowledge is power and the more negotiating tactics you know, then the more
negotiating power you will have

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6-The Power Of Bringing Documentation To A Negotiation

Guess what? Youve been asked to participate in a negotiation. Great. Now what do you need to
do in order to prepare for this negotiation? One thing that you are going to want to give some
thought to is just exactly how you are going to be able to convince the other side of the table that
your position is the right position no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating techniques are
being used. This is going to take some serious convincing. It turns out that you wont be able to
do this by yourself youre going to need some documentation.
What Most People Do Wrong When Starting A Negotiation
All too often, when someone is asked to participate in a negotiation, they grab a pen and a
notebook and they head off to do battle. The problem with this is that they have clearly not
prepared for the negotiation. The other side of the table is going to see them coming, realize
that they are not prepared, and they will have just gained power. You dont want to allow this to
happen to you.
If you dont prepare for a negotiation, then youre going to find yourself shooting from the hip.
Basically, making things up as you go along. As a negotiator, what you are trying to achieve is
called an air of legitimacy. If you havent prepared for the negotiation, then this is not going
to happen for you.
One of the biggest questions is why do people show up for a negotiation unprepared. The short
answer is that nobody every told them what they needed to do. All it is going to take is a
negotiation that turns out badly for them to realize that what they have been doing is not
working. What they need to discover is a better way to show up at their next negotiation
prepared.
The Power Of Documentation In A Negotiation
When you arrive at your next negotiation, you want to walk into the room with an air of
authority. One way to make this happen is to understand what it is going to take to get the other
side of the table to believe that you are correct. One of the most important ways to make this
happen is for you to understand that what people believe to be true is more often than not based
on what they have seen or read.
Just by telling the other side that you have a written down way of doing things will allow your
process (even if it does not really exist) to become the standard for the duration of the
negotiations. Just saying something during a negotiation does not carry that much weight.
Instead, take the research that youve done in preparation for the negotiation, print it out, bring it
to the negotiation, and present it to the other side. When you do this it will be become accepted
as fact.
When the negotiation starts, you need to show up with all of your documentation. More often
than not this is going to put you at an advantage because the other side will probably have very
little documentation to support their position. The good news for you is that even if the other side
is aware of the facts relating to the negotiations, because you have the documentation it will be
simpler for you to defend your position.
What All Of This Means For You
During your next principled negotiation you are going to have to find a way to convince the
other side of the table that your position is the correct one. This can be very hard to do if you
are hoping to accomplish it using only verbal arguments. You are going to have to come up with
another way to get your way in this negotiation.
It turns out that the best way to convince the other side that you know what you are talking about
is to show up with lots of documentation. The reason that this is so powerful is because your
documentation creates an air of legitimacy and can quickly become the standard that the rest of
the negotiation gets built on.
In order to get your next negotiation turn out the way that you want it to, you are going to have to
prepare for it. This means that youve got to show up with documentation. Simply by doing
this you will gain more negotiating power and will have a better chance of getting what you
want out of the negotiations.

Why The Standard Answer Can Help A Negotiator Close The Deal
Magical mind control powers. Thats what every sales negotiator would like to have. The ability
to bend the other side of the tables mind to your way of thinking would be the set of
negotiation styles or negotiating techniques that would make life so much easier. Sadly, I dont
believe that such powers exist. However, there is something that comes pretty close standards.
What Standards Are And Where You Can Find Them
So right off the bat I guess we should tackle the big question: just what the heck is a
standard? Standards are documented ways of going about doing something that were created
by someone else. Note that I didnt say that a standard is recognized as an official source by
anyone in particular nor did I say that it was created by a person who is well regarded in a
particular field. Dont worry, using standards is still a part of conducting a principled
negotiation!
A standard is simply that: documentation about something. The important thing from your
point of view is that during a negotiation when you introduce a standard into the discussion that
both sides start to treat the standard as the ultimate source of information. Using standards should
almost be considered part of the negotiation definition.
If you are preparing for a negotiation and you find that there is no existing standard that will
support your position, then it may be time for you to create your own standard. Even if you
dont create the standard, you can at least have someone within your company create it for you.
Remember that who creates a standard doesnt really matter, its just the simple fact that the
standard exists that gives it its power.
How To Use Standards To Get Your Way In A Negotiation
Once you have the standards that youre going to need in order to conduct a successful
negotiation, you need to understand how to use them as part of the negotiation process. The real
power from a standard comes from the fact that it now equips you with legitimacy.
During the negotiations you can refer to the standards and say things like Ive got to stay within
these standards, thats what my management has told me to do. The other side of the table
might not like this, but what can they do?
Just by having a standard, you can make it easier for the other side to agree to go along with the
proposals that you are making. The standards provide you with an air of legitimacy and they
help to guide the other side to reaching the decision that you really want them to make.
What All Of This Means For You
As a negotiator you are always looking for new ways to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the other
side of the table. You really want to find ways to make your way of seeing the world their way
too so that a negotiated deal is that much easier to reach.
Standards that you bring to the table can provide you with the support that you are looking for.
These standards dont have to be fancy internationally recognized standards. Standards that have
been developed by your company (perhaps just for this negotiation!) often have as much weight.
Simply by having a standard, you can reduce the amount of push-back that the other side will
give to your proposals.
Take the time to plan your next negotiation. Look for ways to boost your position by the
introduction of one or more standards. When the time is right, bring them to the table and
defer to them. You may be amazed at just how powerful the right standard at the right time can
be!

Prove It!: 5 Techniques For Determining How Much Authority The Other Side
Really Has
Whats your most valuable resource? You might have said money, but Im willing to bet that its
really something else time. You can always earn more money, but once you spend time on
some task, its gone, gone, gone. Thats why when you are negotiating with someone it is critical
that you quickly get an answer to the most important question: how much authority do they
really have?
Why Authority Matters
The whole purpose of spending time negotiating with someone is so that you can reach a deal
with them. So what is a deal? Its a two-sided agreement: you promise to do something for the
other side of the table and they promise to do something for you. Sounds simple enough, right?
However, as with all such things in life the reality is a bit trickier. That deal may require the
other side to give up something or spend money or time doing something. This is all well and
fine if the other side has the authority within their company to make this happen. Youll run into
problems if after the deal has been reached that you then find out that the other side does not
have the internal authority to carry out their side of the deal.
Often times youll encounter this lack of authority problem when you are negotiating with
salespeople. They may talk a good line, but when it comes down to it, deals can only be done by
people who are higher up in their company.
In order to make the best use of your time, you are going to want to be able find a way to spot
these folks who dont have the authority to execute a deal that youd reach with them. Your goal
should be to bypass them and to try to deal only with people who can do what they promise
during a negotiation.
5 Ways To Determine How Much Authority The Other Side Has
In a perfect world, every person that you started to negotiate with would be required to carry an
authority card that they could show you in order to prove that yes, they had the authority to
carry out any deal that was reached with you. We dont live in a perfect world so were going to
have to come up with a different approach.
Although there is no silver bullet technique that will allow you to instantly determine if the
other side has the authority to reach a deal with you, there are 5 techniques that can help you
uncover situations in which the other side is not going to be able to carry out their side of the
deal:

No Vacations: A very common way of delaying a deal because the other side didnt have the
authority to strike it is to say that the senior management that needs to approve it is on vacation.
Confirm that they arent before you start negotiating in order to eliminate this ruse.

Get All Paperwork: As much as we may hate them, the world runs by having the correct forms
filled out. Make sure that all required paperwork has been collected and is available before the
negotiations start so that there are no delays.

Be A Man Of Mystery: Or a woman of mystery for that matter. Theres no need to tip your
hand to the other side if you dont have to. Dont brag to them about the limits of your authority
unless they ask.

Update the home team: Its critical that you keep your team updated on how the negotiations
are going. This will eliminate unneeded pressure being placed on you during the negotiations.

Complain: Go to a higher authority at the other sides company and tell them that you wont
negotiate with whomever they sent because they didnt have enough authority. This is a sure fire
way to ensure whomever finally gets sent will have enough authority to strike a deal with you.

What All Of This Means For You

As sales negotiators we all have an obligation to ourselves to make the best use of our limited
time. One of the most effective ways to do this is to take the time to ensure that the person that
were negotiating with has the authority to do a deal.
The other side of the table will often be coy about the amount of actual authority that they have.
This means that youre going to have to take action to find out. This may include asking them
directly, researching their reputation, talking with the other sides boss, or finding out how the
other side makes decisions.
The time that you invest in determining just how much of a commitment the other side can make
to you will go a long way in making the most of your time. It will also mean that when you
reach a deal with the other side of the table, youll know that theyll be able to honor their side of
the deal

The Secret To Dealing With Deadlines: What Negotiators Need To Know

Just how long do you think that your next sales negotiation is going to last? Ive got news for
you it may not last as long as you may think that its going to last. The reason is that either side
of the table may use deadlines to help hurry things along. If this happens, will you recognize that
its happening and, more importantly, will you know what to do when it happens to you?
Whats The Big Deal With Deadlines?
Are we all clear here on just exactly what a deadline is? A deadline is a device that can be used
by either side in a negotiation to move the discussion along. Basically its a way to get to the
end of the discussions quicker.
Just because one side of the table presents the other side with a deadline does not mean that
anything is going to change. Deadlines only work if the other side of the table believes that its
real. Oh, and sometimes they arent deadlines can be made up just to help the side thats
making it up.
As a negotiator youve got two skills that you need to develop. The first is that youve got to be
able to realize when a deadline is being used to motivate you to agree to a deal quicker. The
other skill that you are going to need is the ability to deal with deadlines when they are presented
to you. The good news is that both of these skills can be learned.
How Buyers Use Deadlines
Buyers are generally willing to work with someone who is trying to sell them something for as
long as they think that they are going to be able to get a good deal from them. The quicker that
they can get to a deal, the faster they can move on to the next deal. Deadlines are a powerful tool
for buyers to use to accomplish this.
Buyers can use a wide variety of methods to impose deadlines on the other side of the table.
One such method is to say that funding for a purchase will be going away quickly and so a deal
must be struck soon. Another is to say that an they will be making a purchase, but if a deal cant
be reached quickly then it will have to be made with another firm. Finally, stating that other
parties will be involved in approving any deal and that they soon wont be available for some
period of time is another time-tested method for buyers to impose deadlines.
How Sellers Use Deadlines
The other side of the deadline coin has sellers on it who like to impose deadlines almost as much
as buyers do. Sellers are often working with multiple buyers at different firms and so they need
to determine if a deal is even possible as quickly as possible. Using a deadline can help to get
to the end of a negotiation quickly and this will free up time to work with other parties on other
deals.
Sellers also have a collection of classic deadline techniquesthat they like to use. These include
stating that a price increase is coming soon and the current price may not be available for much
longer. Tying the delivery date to the date that an agreement is struck is another way of
establishing a deadline. Finally, stating that there is a limited supply of what is being negotiated
for can provide the sense of urgency that comes with a deadline.
How You Can Defend Against Deadlines
Detecting that a deadline is being used against you is the first skill that you need to have as a
sales negotiator. The next skill that you need to develop is the ability to defend against a
deadline.
The first thing that you need to realize when you are presented with a deadline is that it may not
be real. A deadline is just another negotiating tactic and you need to view it as being such. Do
not allow a deadline to force you into rushing to make decisions that really require more time.
Instead, what you need to do is to be skeptical about any deadline that is presented to you.
After having been presented with a deadline, your next step has to be to start to test it. Ask
questions and dive deeper to find out what the implications of missing the deadline are and why
they are tied to the deadline.
More often than not, you are going to discover that a deadline is not a fixed thing. Instead, a
deadline just like everything else in a negotiation is up for debate and can be changed.
What All Of This Means For You
Deadlines are a powerful tool that can be used by either side in a negotiation. Instead of
allowing the other side to believe that they have unlimited time to complete a negotiation, the use
of a deadline causes the discussions to move more quickly with a sense of urgency.
Buyers use deadlines to move a deadline forward so that they can either reach a deal with a seller
or move on and start negotiations with another seller. Sellers use deadlines in an attempt to close
a deal quicker. No matter who is using a deadline, when you are presented with one you need to
spend some time questioning if it is a real deadline.
Deadlines will always be a part of modern negotiations. Your responsibility as a skilled
negotiator is to be able to recognize when a deadline is being used and to then know how best to
deal with it.
Deadlines Make Sales Negotiators Give It All Away
Every sales negotiation has some sort of time limit associated with it. You might have an hour, a
day, or even longer to conduct the negotiations, but there is some point in time at which youll
run out of time to talk. This is when most sales negotiations fall apart.
The Problem With The End
Studies of negotiators has revealed a disturbing fact about all of us. During a normal negotiation
we engage in a process in which we give a little bit and take a little bit. Pretty much what you
would expect in any transaction. However, then the news arrives.
When we are informed or we become aware that the window to negotiate is coming to a
close (perhaps someone important needs to leave for the airport), then for some weird reason one
side or the other makes a mistake.
The Big Mistake
When we become aware of an approaching deadline, all too often we start to make
big concessions to the other side of the table that we wouldnt normally make. What happens
next is that they dont make big concessions to us, instead they make smaller concessions which
causes us to make more big concessions.
It turns out that this type of behavior is practiced by both experienced and inexperienced
negotiators. The only real difference is that the inexperienced negotiators made bigger
concessionsthan the experienced ones did.
Why Do We Behave This Way?
In all honesty, this type of behavior really shouldnt come as a surprise to any of us. It all boils
down to one simple fact of life: humans have a tenancy to make very bad decisions when we
are under pressure. Clearly, the last few minutes of a negotiation is the worst time for us to be
making concessions.
What To Do About It
If we can accept that we are poor decision makers when we are under pressure and if we dont
want to give away the farm at the end of a sales negotiation, then whats a sales negotiator to do?
In the end this is all about self-discipline.
You need to limit yourself to only making small concessionsduring the negotiation and you need
to space them out during the negotiations instead of bunching them up at the end. As the end of
the negotiations draws near, before you make ANY concession keep asking yourself:
Why should I make this concession, and
Can this deadline be negotiated?
If you can keep these questions in mind as the negotiations wind down, then youll be all set to
close better deals and close them quicker.
Questions For You
Have you ever given anything away at the end of a negotiation that you wished that you had not?
Has the other side ever made big concessions to you during the last few minutes of a
negotiation? Have you ever caught yourself before you make a big concession that you would
have regretted? Do you use this tendency for the other side to give in at the end as a negotiating
tactic? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Deadline? We Dont Need No Stinkin Deadline

What would the world of negotiating be without deadlines? I can tell you that Hollywood movies
would lose a lot of their plot if the bad guys couldnt set impossible deadlines for our heroes to
try to meet. What about real life why do people use deadlines while negotiating?
Its actually pretty simple, a deadline is an effective communication tool. Deadlines can be used
by either side to apply pressure to the other side and force them to make a choice. If the party
thats under pressure chooses to accept the deadline, then the deal will be done. Otherwise, who
knows?
You see, the trick with deadlines is that when you are presented with one you can never be quite
sure that its real. In the game of poker this is called bluffing. The one thing that we do know
about a deadline is that if we accept it, everything will be resolved. However, there will always
be that unanswered question as to what would have happened if we had not met the deadline
One solid piece of advice is given by experienced negotiators: always be skeptical of any
deadline that you encounter during a negotiation. These types of fixed time limits have a
tendency to come and go.
Now having said this, you also have to realize that in real life sometimes a deadline is real. If you
choose to not meet it, then you are running the very real risk that this may kill the deal once and
for all.
In order to help you see your way through the deadline maze, here are three questions that you
need to ask yourself anytime that you encounter a deadline during a negotiation:
For The Other Side: what deadlines do you know about that the other side has to live with? Do
you know what will happen if they miss their deadlines?
For You: what deadlines have been placed on me by either my team, my organization, or
myself? Will these deadlines limit how effective I can be during this negotiation?
Renegotiation: Is is possible for my team to renegotiate any of the deadlines that have been
placed on us by our own people? Who says that we can or cannot?
As much as we all dread having the other side throw a deadline at us, we need to remember that
deadlines are an effective tool that we have in our own bag of tricks. Studies of negotiations have
been done and they have revealed that deadlines do one thing very well they force the other
side to make a decision.
All too often in a negotiation, things can be dragging on for too long. If you find yourself in this
situation where the other side appears to be resisting making up their minds, then perhaps a
deadline is called for.
This type of situation often shows up when the other side is faced with an especially difficult
decision. They will drag their feet longer in order to avoid having to make up their mind. If you
can convey to them that there is a sense of legitimacy to your deadline, then you can use this
powerful tool to close the deal faster.
Have you ever been presented with a deadline during a negotiation? Were you able to determine
if it was a real deadline? Did you meet the deadline or did you skip it? What happened then?
Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Giving To Get: How A Sales Negotiator Makes Concessions

Sales negotiating is all about concessions. You make them, the other side makes them. Finally, if
enough has been given, then you should be able to reach a common middle ground where a deal
can be struck.
The trick is knowing how and when you should make your concessions. Here are some tips from
the pros to make sure that you do it correctly:
Plenty of Room: Make sure that you always give yourself plenty of room to negotiate. Simple
things like starting with a high price or a lengthy delivery cycle will buy you the room to make
concessions during the negotiations.
Hide Your Cards: You always want to work to make the other side of the table open up and put
all of his cards on the table long before you have to do the same. You should keep your
motivations and goals hidden from view in order to maintain your negotiating power.
Be Second: Never make a major concession first. Once again this is a power thing. Instead,
make minor concessions until the cows come home.
Make Em Earn It: Never make a concession without making the other side earn it first. If they
dont earn it, then they wont appreciate the concession when you give it to them.
Wait: Make sure that you hold on to your concessions for as long as you can. Giving in later in
the negotiation is always better than earlier and the other side will appreciate it more (see #4).
No Tit-For-Tat: it turns out that tit-for-tat or one-for-one concessions are not necessary. Its ok
if the other side gives more than you do.
Gimme: Make sure that you get something for every concession that you make.
Empty Boxes: Give concessions that really give nothing away from your point of view.
Words: Getting the other side to say Ill consider it is one form of a concession.
Promises: Just like in #9, getting the other side to make a promise is yet another form of having
them make a concession.
When you negotiate, which of these suggestions do you think is the most important? Did I leave
anything off of my list? Should anything be removed from the list? Leave me a comment and let
me know what you are thinking.

Death To Deadlines! (Ours Not Theirs)

It is one of lifes great truths: deadlines make things happen in negotiations. Im speaking only
for myself, but I suspect that many others would agree that if I can, Ill wait as long as possible
before I finally get around to making a decision. Case in point: Ive got a high school
reunionnotice sitting on my desk and I still havent made up my mind if Im going to attend. Ive
got one more week to make up my mind and Ill probably only make my decision on the very
last day!
The good thing, sorta, about deadlines is that they create pressure to close. Trust me on this, if it
were not for deadlines negotiations could end up taking longer than they already do. The
problem with deadlines is that when we are negotiating we tend to be more aware of our time
limits rather than those on the other party. Everybody has time limits and we need to be more
aware of that. If we focus on just our limits, then this will lead us to under use the strengths that
we have and to, unfortunately, overestimate the strength of the other side of the table. Before
entering a negotiation, we need to get answers to three deadline related questions:
What Deadlines Are On The Other Party? This is the ultimate question to get an answer to. If
you are negotiating to buy a car, the time that the dealership closes will definitely be a deadline
for the other party. Get creative and crawl inside the other partys skin and spend some time
thinking like they do in order to create a list of their possible deadlines.
What Deadlines Has Your Organization Put On You?This is almost as important as the first
question. You need to know what kind of limitations you are dealing with. If you have more time
to negotiate then the other side, then great. If not, then you are already in a bind even before the
negotiations start.
Is It Possible To Renegotiate The Deadlines That Have Been Put On You? Although not
always realized, this is a critical point. Just because you have a deadline, does not mean that you
have to live with it. Often times internal deadlines have been created somewhat arbitrarily and
can be easily changed. If you can move your deadlines out beyond the other sides deadlines, then
you will be in an excellent position even before the negotiations start.
So the key here is to realize that everything in life (including life itself) has a deadline associated
with it. As long as you do your research and at least guess at what the other sides deadlines are,
then youll be in good shape to negotiate from a position of strength.
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7-Getting The Information That You Need In Order To Prepare For A Negotiation
What wed all like to have in our next negotiation is more control. The big question is how can
get this? It turns out that the answer is fairly simple: we need to do a better job of preparing for
the negotiation than the other side does. A big part of this preparation is obtaining information
about who we will be negotiating with.
Why Is Knowing The Other Side So Important?
Getting ready for a negotiation takes a lot of work. There is the identification of all of the
issues, understanding what concessions youll be willing to make, clearly laying out what kind of
deal that you are looking for, etc. Why the heck should we spend even more time researching the
people that well be negotiating with?
When you go into your next negotiation you need to know who youll be negotiating with if you
want to any hope of getting that deal that you want. The things that you need to know include
what the backgrounds of the other negotiators are. One of the most important things that you are
going to want to find out about them is what their negotiating track record is: what has happened
during other negotiations? Youll also want to know what negotiation styles and negotiating
techniques they like to use.
The reason that you are so interested in finding out as much information as you can about who
you will be negotiating with is because any kind of insights that you can gain regarding the
people that youll be negotiating with can help you to get a better deal. What every negotiation
really comes down to is two sets of people talking with each other. This means that the more that
you know about them, then the better prepared you will be to get the deal that you want. If it
turns out that you know more about them then they know about you, then you are probably going
to walk away with the best deal.
How Can You Find Out About The Other Side?
If Ive convinced you that taking the time to find out as much as you can about the other side of
the table is a good thing to do, then the next logical question is how can you go about doing
this? One of the best ways to go about doing this is to actually talk to someone who has
negotiated with them in the past. This cant possibly be their first negotiation, so find that other
person and ask them what they learned about their opponent.
We are living in the 21st Century and what this means to you is that there are a lot of different
ways to get information about the people that youll be negotiating with. An obvious source is
the Internet. But if you are going to be negotiating with a lawyer, then dont forget to check
with the Bar Association or perhaps the Better Business Bureau.
One of the best sources of information about the person that youll be negotiating with can come
from other people who work with them. If you are having meeting with people who work for
the other sides company in order to set up your negotiations, then ask them about the people that
youll be negotiating with. Key questions include how they make decisions and do they move
fast or slow.
What All Of This Means For You
In order to get the deal that you want out of your next principled negotiation, you need to
prepare for the negotiation better than the other side does. What this means is that you need
to take the time to learn everything that you can about the people that youll be negotiating with.
The reason that knowing about the people that youll be negotiating with is so important is
because the more insights that you have, the better your outcome will be. Knowing what
motivates the other side allows you to score more points during the negotiation. Getting the
information that you need is straightforward. Talking with others who have negotiated with them
is a good place to start. Next, searching on the Internet and checking with professional
associations will also help.
Any negotiation that you participate in is going to require time, energy, and effort on your part. It
makes sense that youll want to do everything possible to get the best results. Take the time to
discover everything that you can about who youll be negotiating with and youll boost your
chances of getting the deal that you want.

Are You Negotiating With The Right Person?

Quiz: what is the purpose of any negotiation? Answer: to reach a deal with the other side.
Now, if thats your goal, then no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating techniques are
used during the negotiations, the other side has to be in a position to agree to implement
whatever deal you reach, right? If this is correct, then it must be important that the person sitting
across the table from you has the authority to implement any deal that you are able to reach with
them. Do you know if they do are they the right person to be negotiating with?
Who Are You Negotiating With?
Good news you may be negotiating with the right person. Or not. One of the most important
things for any negotiator to find out is if the key decision makers regarding what you are
preparing to negotiate about are even in the room have you met them before things get started?
This is the type of question that you need to get an answer to before the negotiations start.
If the important people arent there, then who is there? More often than not, what you are going
to find is that you may be dealing with messengers. These are people who do not have the
authority to implement any deal that is agreed to. Their role is simply to convey information
about the negotiations back to their managers.
When you discover that you are negotiating with someone who doesnt have the authority to
make a deal happen, dont walk away. Instead, use these people as tools. Provide them with the
information that they are going to need in order to relay it to their management. Make sure that
you dont make the mistake of trying to negotiate with them its not worth your time.
How To Find Out Who You Are Negotiating With
If negotiating with the right people is so important, then how can you determine who the right
people are? In order to make this happen, you need to be able to identify the important people
on the other side of the table and you have to understand both their roles and their motivations.
When there are a lot of people involved in a negotiation, you are going to have to keep track of
whos who. This means keeping a list of names along with their roles and any personal
information that you are able to collect. Make guesses about the role that theyll play and update
your notes as the negotiations unfold.
Keep in mind that all too often in a negotiation, things are not as they seem. The most
important person in the room may be sitting off to the side just watching events unfold. Take the
time to discover that they are there and make sure that you understand what the purpose of them
being there is.
What All Of This Means For You
In order to make sure that you are spending your time wisely, you need to make sure that you are
negotiating with the right person. What this means for you is that you have to find a way to
confirm that the person on the other side of the table has the ability to implement any deal that
you reach with them.
The wrong types of people to negotiate with are the message carriers. These are the people who
have limited authority and whos only job is to take information back to their bosses. In order to
avoid this situation, you need to take stock of who from the other side is participating in the
negotiations and what each persons role is. The real decision maker may be hidden in the
corners of the room.
You wouldnt start out on a business trip if you didnt know your final destination. Likewise, you
dont want to start a principled negotiation without knowing that any deal that is reached can be
implemented by both sides. Take your time to evaluate the role that the other side plays in their
organization and make sure that you are negotiating with the right person.

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8-What Does A Negotiating Game Plan Really Look Like?
Our goal for any negotiation that we participate in is to be able to walk away with the best deal
possible no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating techniques were used.. However, all too
often we go into a negotiation with no clear idea just exactly how we are going to achieve that
goal. What can be missing from our planning for a negotiation is a game plan. Just knowing
that you need a game plan is one thing, understanding what goes into one is something
completely different.
What Needs To Go Into A Game Plan
Im hoping that we can all agree that a game plan is needed before you enter into your next
negotiation. However, where things tend to get just a bit fuzzy is when we start to talk
about exactly what needs to go into a game plan. Ultimately a game plan is just a set of
answers to a number of very important questions.
The trick is for a skilled negotiator is to know what questions he or she needs to have an
answer to before the negotiation starts. Some of these questions are fairly basic. Things like
what are you planning on saying at the start of the negotiations? How will you react to what the
other side says to you? In the event that the talks come to a deadlock, what is your next step
going to be?
As you can see, these are some fairly basic questions that for each negotiation you are going
to have to answer and then add both the question and your answer to your game plan. If you
have the time, you can go even farther. This means that youll need to come up with answers to
questions like what kind of concessions are you going to be both willing and able to make during
the negotiations? What kind of concessions are you going to be expecting from the other side of
the table? Finally, just exactly what do you know about the people that you will be negotiating
with do you have a good understanding of what is motivating them to negotiate with you?
How To Use A Game Plan In A Negotiation
If youve taken what Ive told you to heart and gone ahead and created a game plan for your next
negotiation, then that is fantastic! Having a game plan is really all about control. It turns out
that the more that you know about the negotiation and the other side both before things start and
while the negotiation is in progress then the more control you will have over how it all turns out.
Using your game plan will allow you to explore different possibilities during the negotiation
because youll always know where you want to go. By doing this its almost as though there is a
script or a storyline that you are following. No, things probably wont go exactly like you
thought they would at the beginning; however, if you start with a game plan then youll be
organized from the start.
Things always change during a negotiation and so your game plan will undoubtedly need to be
changed during the course of the negotiations. However, every negotiation is all about power
who has it and who does not. By having a game plan youll be prepared and if the other side
does not, then youll have even more power!
What All Of This Means For You
In order to get the most out of your next principled negotiation, you are going to need to have a
plan. What this means is that youll have to take the time to create a game plan before the
negotiation starts. The key is to know what goes into a game plan and how to use it.
A game plan consists of answers to questions that you believe need to be addressed before the
negotiation start. A lot of this has to do with you planning out what you will be telling the other
side. However, you also have to anticipate what you believe that they will be telling you and how
youll react. Having a game plan allows you to script out the entire negotiation. Yes, things will
change, but having a game plan will allow you to be organized.
Every negotiation is about control. Who has it and how they are going to keep it. Having a game
plan allows you to start out a negotiation with control and maintain it as the negotiation
progresses. With a game plan youll be better prepared to get what you want than the other side
will be.

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9-In A Negotiation, Its Not What You Know, But What People Think You Know

I wish that I could tell you that I know everything that has to be known in this world. However,
the truth is that I actually know very little when you consider all that there is to know.What
this means is that when I walk into a negotiation, Im really at a bit of a disadvantage there are
things about the negotiation that I dont know. What can I do to turn this disadvantage into an
advantage for me?
The Power Of Apparent Knowledge
Apparent knowledge is all about making the other side of the table believe that you know more
than you do about a topic. There are a number of different ways to go about making this happen.
The first is to for your reputation to precede you. If theyve done research on you before the
negotiations and the information that theyve picked up tells them that you know what youre
talking about, then theyll believe that you know your stuff. Another way to make this happen is
for you to use buzz words by using the language of the topic, youll come across as being very
knowledgeable.
The power of apparent knowledge is that the other side will treat you with more respect. It really
doesnt matter if this respect is based on reality or perception; the end result is the same. One of
the interesting things about apparent knowledge is that once it has established you as an expert,
very rarely will anyone challenge you. Simply by staking a claim to having the knowledge means
that nobody is going to challenge you on this.
Having apparent knowledge is all about confidence. When you enter the room, stride in like you
know what youll be talking about. The other side will give you the benefit of the doubt until
you give them a reason to believe otherwise. Just be careful and dont allow the other side to
probe you too much you dont want them to find out what you dont know!
Two Ways To Use Apparent Knowledge In A Negotiation
Having all of the apparent knowledge in the world is not going to do you any good if you dont
know how to use it. There are two thingsthat you are going to have to understand about apparent
knowledge and how best to use it in order to be successful.
The first, and perhaps the most fundamental, thing that you need to know is that you dont have
to be an expert on a given topicin order to look like you are an expert on it. This is even truer if
you can recognize when a pattern is starting to emerge during a negotiation.
What this means is that based on past experiences that youve had with similar issues or similar
negotiating teams, youre going to be able to anticipate how things are going to unfold. This is
going to allow you to be able to take a step back and see the negotiation styles and negotiating
techniques that the other side is going to be using. This will help you to reach a better deal.
The other thing that you are going to have to understand about using apparent knowledge is that
during the negotiation youll probably end up using your knowledge of similar negotiations.
However, the thing that you need to understand is that this negotiation is not the same as any
negotiations youve participated in previously.
What this is going to mean for you is that although you may be tempted to use negotiating
strategies that have worked in similar situations, dont. You are negotiating with different people
and no matter how similar the situations may seem, they are different. This is going to require
you to keep your eyes open and develop a new strategy that is relevant to the situation that is at
hand.
What All Of This Means For You
When any of us start a principled negotiation, we have an important job to do. The other side
of the table will be sizing us up in order to determine just exactly how much we do or do not
know about the subject that well be negotiating about. No matter how little we may know, this
is where apparent knowledge can help us out.
Representing to the other side that we know more about a topic than we really can significantly
help our negotiating situation. Keeping our eyes open and recognizing emerging patterns in the
negotiation can help to bolster our apparent expertise. We must always keep in mind that
although we may think that we recognize a situation as one that weve dealt with before, we may
be wrong and it may be different.
As negotiators we need to recognize apparent knowledge for what it is: a powerful tool for us to
use in our next negotiation. Well never have the time to become an expert in every area of a
negotiation. Let the use of apparent knowledge fill in any gaps that we may be bringing to the
table and well eventually be able to walk away from the negotiation with a better deal.

Why You Dont Know What The Other Side Doesnt Know
The trick to doing well at your next negotiation is to know who knows what no matter what
negotiation styles or negotiating techniques are being used. Or another way of saying that is you
want to fully understand what the other side of the table does not know. Hmm, this is all getting
rather confusing. How about if we just say that when you enter into your next negotiation, you
dont want to be making any assumptions about what you think that the other side of the table
knows.
So What Do They Really Know?
Before your next negotiation starts, I suspect that youre going to take some time in order
to check out the other side of the table. Well guess, what they are going to do the same to
you. This brings up a very interesting question that you need to find the answer to. Just exactly
what do they know about you?
Heres a very interesting fact about life the other side may know absolutely nothing about you.
Yep, they may have found out nada when they did their research. However, even in this
situation, they are going to be operating with their own set of assumptions about you. You
need to take care and make sure that you dont provide them with any information about you that
theyll be able to use.
You need to be very careful to not make any assumptions about what the other side knows
about you. More often than not, youre going to be assuming that they know more than they
really do. Dont help them out. Instead, make them work to find out where you stand on the
issues, what your motivations are, and what you want to get out of the negotiations.
What Do You Know About What The Other Side Knows?
Power in a negotiation is a very slipper thing. You may know that you dont have a lot of it;
however, the other side of the table may not know this. In this case, there is no reason to let
them know that they hold the power.
During a negotiation you need to realize that the other side is always going to be checking you
out, always trying to verity their assumptions about you. However, theyll be doing this in their
own way which might be different from the way that youll be going about doing it.
What this means for you is that you need to spend some time to understand how the other side
is going to be trying to find out what you know. If this can be determined, then you just might
be able to guide it and take control of what the other side learns about you. The power of being
able to do this is immense youll find yourself holding a great deal of the power in the
negotiation if you can pull this off!
What Does All Of This Mean For You?
Negotiation is a game. In this game, knowledge is power. Its not enough to just know things,
you also have to know what the other side of the table knows. Making assumptions about what
they know can be a very dangerous thing to do.
As negotiators we need to understand that before the principled negotiation starts, hopefully
weve spent some time checking out the other side of the table. We can assume that theyve done
the same with us. We cant make any assumptions about what theyve learned. To do so will
give some of our negotiating power away.
In order to conduct a successful negotiation, we need to understand what is known about us.
However, it can be all too easy to assume that everything that we know, the other side also
knows. This is never true. Take the time to sit back, clear out any wrong assumptions you may
be making, and then get back to your negotiations. Make the other side work to find out what
you really know!

Power Play: Secrets To Successful Negotiating

Would you like to be a better negotiator? Sure, we all would. The trick is finding out just
exactly how to move from where our negotiating skills currently are to where wed like them to
be. It turns out that its not all about who has the best negotiation styles and negotiating
techniques. Theres got to be a way to do this
In The End, Its All About Finding The Right Deal
If you want to become a better negotiator, then you need to make sure that you understand why
you are negotiating in the first place. It can be all too easy to think that a negotiation is a type
of competition or a contest.
Nothing could be further from the truth. What you need to be spending your time doing is
searching for how you can find the best deal for both sides of the table. The good news is that
such a deal always exists. The bad news is that it may be tricky to find.
In order to find a deal that will produce a win-win result for everyone, both sides of the table
have to work together. You both need to join forces in order to find the best deal for both of
you. Do this right, and everyone will walk away from the negotiations a winner.
Good News You Have A Lot Of Power
The next time that you sit down at a negotiation, you may be thinking that you are operating at
a disadvantage. For one reason or another, you may believe that the other side of the table has
all of the power and you have very little.
The good news is that this is not the case. The other side has to operate under a set of needs and
constraints that their organization has saddled them with. You may not know what these are, but
they are there. Even though you cant see it, this burden is placing pressure on their position even
before the negotiations start.
What this means for you is that you need to find ways to ignore the pressures that have been
placed on you. Instead, you need to spend your time working to discover what pressures the
other side of the table is operating under. Find out what limits them and youll be the one at
the table with all of the power.
What All Of This Means For You
Becoming better at this thing that we call negotiating is something that we all want to do. Where
we often run into problems is in finding out just exactly how to develop the negotiating
skillsthat we know that we are going to need.
In order to do a better job of negotiating, we need to keep in mind what we are trying to
accomplish: reaching a deal with the other side. Searching for that better deal at all times will
make us a better negotiator. Power is a key part of any principled negotiation and we need to
realize that no matter the circumstances that were negotiating in, we always have more power
than we realize.
Becoming a better negotiator is not something that happens overnight. Instead, we need to
understand what it takes to be more successful and then we need to work at developing those
skills. Search for better deals and use the power that you have to do an even better job the next
time that you negotiate!

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10-The Power Of Actual Knowledge
Rarely do negotiations just happen. Instead, they are planned well in advance and youve got
plenty of time to get ready to participate in them and to deal with all of the different negotiation
styles and negotiating techniques that youll encounter. What this means for you as a negotiator
is that you need to make use of the (limited) time that you have in order to show up well
prepared for the negotiation. Great concept, but just exactly how are we supposed to go about
doing this?
What Is Actual Knowledge?
There are two things that you need to know about before you enter into your next
negotiation: the issue(s) that will be negotiated and the people who will be doing the
negotiating. When you walk into the negotiation, you want to show up with well-organized
research and facts that youll be able to use to back up your position.
The people who will be doing the negotiating for the other side are almost as important as the
topics that will be negotiated. As a negotiator you need to know their strengths, their
weaknesses, and even such seemingly insignificant things such as where they went to school,
their marital status, and if they have any children. Every small piece of information that you can
learn may be valuable later on even if it seems insignificant right now.
All of this information can be considered to be part of your actual knowledge. What you are
going to find is that a great deal of this knowledge comes in the form of statistics or averages.
These may not pertain to the specific circumstance that you are negotiating about. You need to
be careful when you come across information like this and you need to determine if you want to
adopt it.
Where Does Knowledge Come From?
Knowing that you want to gather as much knowledge as possible is one thing, knowing where
to get that knowledge is another thing. It turns out that there are three main sources for the
actual knowledge that we use in the course of a negotiation:
Your Experiences: If you have knowledge about what is going to be negotiated, then you
should rely on your own experiences. If there are gaps in your experience, then reach out and
contact the people and the sources that can be used to fill in your gaps.
Outside Professionals: There is no way that any of us can be an expert in every area. No matter
if the issue has to do with accounting, the law, investing, or something else, when you dont
know something, you need to reach out and get help. Dont be bashful, we all have to have help
at times.
Use Your Team: It can be all too easy to get caught up in the limitations and restrictions that
have been placed on us by the firm that we are negotiating for. What we need to remember at the
same time is that because we are part of a larger organization, we have other people that we can
reach out to in order to get assistance with the current negotiation. Make sure that you keep your
team informed about the negotiations all too often negotiations fail because of people on our
team, not because of the other side.
What Does All Of This Mean For You?
Hopefully we can all agree that in a principled negotiation, knowledge is power. One of the
most valuable forms of knowledge is actual knowledge this is everything that youve been able
to learn about the issue to be negotiated and the people who will be doing the negotiating.
One of the most important things that you need to be aware of is that statistics and averages can
result in misleading knowledge. Something that is generally true may not pertain to what you
are going to be negotiating. Actual knowledge can come from any one of a number of different
sources including your own experience, outside professionals, and any necessary parties on your
side.
The more you know, the stronger your negotiating position will be. Taking the time to carefully
gather actual knowledge will ensure that the information that you have is accurate and useful
for the negotiations that you will be involved in. Do your homework and make sure that you start
your next negotiation well prepared!

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The Power Of Planning Your Next Negotiation
Your parents, teachers, best friends, financial planners, parole officers, etc. were all right when
they told you that in order to be successful in life you really need to plan, plan, plan. In the world
of business, planning is a part of almost all activities; however, its in the area of negotiations
that business planning will provide you with the greatest return on your investment of time.
With all of this being said, you would think that planning would be second nature to anyone who
is getting ready to enter into negotiations. You would be wrong.
Its not so much that folks forget to research the other side of the table (Google has made that
easy to almost instantaneously), but rather that we dont spend enough time understanding what
WE are trying to get out of the negotiating.
The following steps will help you to put together a great plan for your next negotiating session:
Pick A Good Negotiator
Maybe the negotiator is you, but if it isnt, then make sure that you pick someone who know how
to negotiate. Included in this persons set of skills should be a strong ability to work with teams
and the ability to control their emotions.
Plug In To Your Power Sources
The key to having a successful negotiation is to make sure that you are negotiating from a source
of power hopefully a more powerful position than the other side of the table. This means that
you need to take the time to identify your sources of power.
Remember that we always have MORE power than we initially think that we do. Additionally,
study the other sides sources of power also. They almost always have LESS power than we
initially think that they do.
One Night Stands vs. Long Term Relationships
Are you preparing to negotiate with someone that you will end up having a long-term
relationship with? If so, then this means that you have not only short-term goals, but also long-
term goals that need to be considered.
Why Are They Willing To Negotiate?
Making sure that you truly understand why the other side of the table is there in the first place
can be key to creating a solution that works for all. If you can uncover what their motivation is,
then you have solved half of the problem of creating a solution that will work for both of you.
Goals Are Good
Knowing what motivates you is just as important as understanding the other sides motivation.
You need to further understand what its going to take in order for you to leave the negotiations
feeling satisfied. This means that you need to have very clear goals so that youll know when you
have reached them.
Become A Time Lord
One hidden aspect of any negotiation is that everything changes. The things that we are
negotiating for have had a value in the past, they have a different value today, and theyll have
yet another value sometime off in the future. We need to be able to realize this and consider all
three values when we are negotiating for something.
There you have it the basic building blocks that need to go into the planning that you do for
your next negotiating session. With these taken care of, youre almost guaranteed to be
successful!
What type of planning do you do today before you start a negotiation? Do you always have a
chance to do this preparation or do you find yourself being thrown into negotiation sessions
unprepared? Which of these planning steps do you feel are the most important to you? Leave me
a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Its All About Power
One of the big challenges to doing a good job of negotiating is that often you dont feel in control of the
situation you believe that the other side has all of the power. This of course is not true, because if it
was then they would not be preparing to negotiate with you. They would just tell you what to do and you
would do it. See? Now doesnt that make you feel better?
So heres a secret: power is not real. It only exists in your mind and so it is what you think it is. If you
think that you are powerful, then you are. If you dont think that you are powerful, then you wont be.
Sales people have known for a long time that negotiation is a process of information discovery. During
this discovery process you learn what your sources of power for this particular negotiation are.
A long time ago, a researcher named Dr. Chester L. Karrass discovered that power is simply a state of
mind. Those who think that they are powerless will negotiate weakly even if in reality they do have
power. Those who think that they have power will negotiate from strength even if they really dont have
any power.
The take away here is to get yourself in the right state of mind BEFORE you start to negotiate. Once you
start the negotiations make sure that you keep your ears open so that you can discover your real sources of
power. Then go out and make it happen!

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Deals That Make Money: How To Plan Your Concession
When negotiating deals with someone, you realize that they arent just going to roll over and
give you everything that you ask for. Instead, they are going to expect you to participate in a
back-and-forth, give-and-take discussion in which both sides are expected to both concede as
well as gain issues. This means that you need to have a strategy for each concession that you
plan on offering to the other side. Looks like this calls for some serious planning!
First, lets make sure that we all understand why we are willing to make a concession. There are
two reasons that youd make a concession during a negotiation. First, to persuade the other side
to move us close to a deal or to avoid a deadlock. Secondly, to increase the other sides
satisfaction. Both of these reasons provide a powerful motivation to make concessions when it
makes sense.
There are actually a great number of nuances to the best management of concessions; however,
here are the four most important approaches that you should start to use immediately:
Leave Yourself Lots Of Room (to Negotiate): Remember that a concession is a tool that is
designed to help you move the negotiation along. If you leave yourself a great deal of wiggle
room then you find that youll have more room in which to use your concession tools.
A Concession Should Be Given Slowly Be Stingy!: So much of the process of managing a
concession has to do with managing the psychology of the other side. If you are too quick to
offer a concession, then the other side will give it little value. If instead, they feel that they they
had to work hard to get you to offer the concession, then they will highly value this hard won
success.
A.I.R.: Ask for something In Return.: This is a subtle one, but you need to make sure that you
clearly communicate that during the negotiation, nothing is for free. This means that every time
you make a concession, you need to ask the other side for something in return. The challenge
comes because you dont want to be seen as conducting a 1-for-1 negotiation. Instead, youd like
to be seen as more casual and carefree. However, deep down inside you need to be tracking all
concessions and making sure that youve gotten something in return for everything that youve
given up.
Watch Your Rate Of Concessions: Yes you will end up making several concessions during a
normal negotiation. However, you need to make sure that you space these concessions out and
dont bunch them together. Otherwise it will look like you are willing to give up more than you
are. Especially be careful about what happens as you approach the end of the negotiation. Studies
have shown that 80% of the concessions that are made, are made in the last 20% of the
negotiation time. Dont let deadlines cause you to make too many concessions!
There you have it. Using these four guidelines, you can turn a concession from an admission of
negotiating weakness into a powerful tool.

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Real Deals Use Real Money And Sales Negotiators Never Forget It
My daughter is currently learning about how to add fractions in school. The trick to doing this
right is that you have to make sure that the denominator (the number on the bottom of the
fraction) is the same for both numbers before you add them. Shes struggling with this concept
and it reminds me of a key sales negotiating point never try to do a deal using funny money.
Just What Is Funny Money?
We all have heard the phrase apples to apples right? Well funny money is something that can
either sneak into a sales negotiation or be slid into it by one side of the table. When this happens,
all of a sudden you arent comparing two equal things such as how much a product costs and
how much you are willing to pay for it. Instead, all of a sudden youve got apples, oranges,
and bananas on the table in front of you.
A great example of funny money in real life is what happens when you gamble in a casino: you
dont use real money, you use chips instead. There are a number of reasons for this, but a key
one is that chips dont seem like real money. That allows us to gamble more and not feel as
bad when they all go away (although it still hurts when we get the bill later on!)
Examples Of Funny Money In Sales Negotiations
Whether intentionally or not, funny money can slip into just about any sales negotiation. Its the
careful negotiator who keeps his / her eyes open and spots it when it shows up. Here are a few
examples of what funny money can look like:
Price Per Unit: If Im asking you to lower your blue widget price by two cents per unit, that
seems like a small matter, right? It is until you realize that Im trying to buy two million blue
widgets and so what Im really asking for is a $40,000 discount. Now thats real money!
Price Per Lot: This is the flip side of the previous tactic. If Im laying mulch in my yard and you
tell me that youll sell me 10 bags of mulch for $20, that sounds like a fair deal. Until I realize
that since I need 200 bags of mulch, were really talking about me paying you $400 for mulch.
The total quantity needed and its price is what we need to negotiate.
Interest Rates: This is exactly what built those credit card companies into the powerhouses that
they are today. If I borrow $60,000 at 10% on a 5-year loan to start my business, then Ive just
agreed to pay the bank $16,489.20 for the privilege of using their money. Sure seems like I
should try to negotiate a lower interest rate.
Final Thoughts
It is the job of every sales negotiator to train yourself to always be asking the question: what is
that worth. Just like my daughter is trying to learn to remember that she always needs to convert
the denominator of two fractions to the same value, so too do sales negotiators need to learn to
always map funny money to real values.
No matter what the other side of the table says, always take the time to translate funny money
into real dollars and cents (or whatever currency you are using). If you dont take the time to
do this, you run the risk of making a bigger concession than you intended to. Learn to deal with
funny money correctly and this will allow you to close better deals and close them quicker.
Questions For You
Have you ever been in a sales negotiation that included funny money? What form did the funny
money take? How did it get into the negotiation? Did you take the time to map it to real money?
Did you end up making a larger concession than you would have if you had been dealing with
real money? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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3 Secrets Successful Sales Negotiators Use To Win
Ok, so Ill be the first to admit it I used the forbidden word win in the title. In sales
negotiations we prefer to not say win because it implies that there is also a loser. and thats
not a good thing. How about if we try something like 3 secrets to always walking away feeling
successful?
Its All About Patterns
Successful sales negotiators are good at what they do because they know what they are doing.
That being said, they also have developed patterns for conducting sales negotiations that serve
them well. If you want to improve how your sales negotiations turn out, then taking the time to
study these patterns will help move you towards your goal.
The 3 Secrets
Control Your Location & Time: Just like most sports teams, the sales negotiator who conducts
a negotiation on his / her home turf tends to do better. Negotiating at your base of operations
makes life easier you have better access to information and people and you spend less time
searching for things that you need to complete the deal. Additionally, although there is no one
perfect time to conduct sales negotiations, every deal has its own best time. Late on Fridays can
often be a powerful time to close a deal quickly!
Understand Your B.A.T.A.N.A?: Before you start any sales negotiation, you need to make sure
that you have a good understanding of what your Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement
(BATANA) is. If the talks break down, what will your next action be? Knowing this in advance
gives you more power while you are negotiating.
Start High, Give In Slowly: If you are negotiating to sell something, you need to plan the
negotiation in advance. This means setting your price high enough so that you have room to
allow the other side to bring you down. During every negotiation, you will have to make
concessions to the other side. Studies have shown that sales negotiators who make their
concessions in smaller increments seem to end up doing better.
Next Steps
The art of sales negotiations does not have one magic sliver bullet that suddenly transforms an
average sales negotiator into a top-notch sales negotiator. Instead, there are a 1,000 negotiating
skills that provide the scaffolding that we all need in order to climb to the next level negotiating.
Get this right and youll be well on your way to being able to close better deals and close them
quicker.
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Shut-Up Is What Sales Negotiators Need To Learn To Do!

Negotiation is all about power. The trick to walking away from a sales negotiation feeling
satisfied about what you were able to achieve is to make sure that you walk IN to the negotiation
with more negotiating power than the other side has. Sounds easy doesnt it? Ive been
amazed over and over again to see sales negotiators just give away their negotiating
power to the other side time after time. They just dont realize that they are doing it. Lets see if
we can put a stop to this
How Do Sales Negotiators Lose Power?
Negotiating power can be a be a funny thing. You can have a lot of it and not even know it.
Likewise, you can give it away and not be aware that you are doing so. There are a lot of ways to
lose power but the #1 way is for you to run your mouth too much. Ultimately negotiating
power is all about having more information. Whichever side of the table has more information
about the other side has the power. Information can be used against you, so you want to hold on
to it as tightly as possible.
How To Hold On To Power During A Sales Negotiation
If only it was as easy as keeping your mouth shut! Nope, there are actually a number of things
that you can do in order to ensure that you keep the upper hand when it comes to negotiating
power during you next sales negotiation:
Dont Talk Business: In the small talk that occurs before the start of any sales negotiation, dont
talk about business. You might be able to not give away any secrets, but maybe youll make a
mistake. Stick to weather, sports, family anything but business.
Let The Other Side Do The Talking: Even better than you talking is getting the other side to
talk, and talk, and talk. Just as you can leak power to the other side, the more they talk the better
the odds that they will say something that will give you more negotiating power.
Keep Your Timeline A Secret: At the end of a fiscal quarter, negotiating with a salesperson
who has already met his / her quota is completely different from negotiating with one who
hasnt. If you are this salesperson, dont let the other side know where you stand also dont
mention if business has been slow, or if youve got product piling up all over the place.
Dont Start With Discounts: All too often salespeople will start a sales negotiation that they are
anxious to close by offering a discount or some other enticement to the other side right off the
bat. Dont do this although it might have worked in some other negotiation, if you start this
way then the other side wont see the value in your offer and you will have lost power even
before the negotiations have begun.
Tell Everyone On Your Team To Shut-Up!: Even if this discussion sinks in to your brain, you
can still lose power by comments that the engineers, procurement staff, and even the lawyers on
your team make. Take the time BEFORE the sales negotiation begins to huddle with your team
and explain to them that the more they talk, the more negotiating power they will be giving away
to the other side.
Final Thoughts
Things that we cant see are hard for most of us to get our hands around. Power in a sales
negotiation is one of these things it can be hard to tell how much of it you have and if youve
lost some of it. Remembering to keep your mouth closed and working with your team to make
sure that they do the same thing will allow you to close better deals and close them quicker.
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Japanese Sales Negotiation Secrets

All too often Americans (like me) think that we know everything. The reality is that our society
has only been around for a bit over 200 years and were just getting started. Thats why it can be
valuable for a sales negotiator to take a look at how societies that have been around for 1,000s
of years negotiate. Like, say, Japan
The U.S. really started to take a look at how we dealt Japan in the 1980s when trade between
our countries exploded. What people quickly realized is that both sides of the table were
fundamentally different. There for the first decade or so, U.S. sales negotiators were getting
taken to the bank more often than not because the Japanese sales negotiators were doing a
better job.
Over time HOW these negotiations were being conducted was closely studied. Three techniques
quickly became apparent:
Considered Response / Respectful Silence: when Japanese sales negotiators are on the other
side of the table, be prepared to sit quietly. Western sales negotiators dont know what to do
when nobody is talking and the Japanese know this. They can sit, work out math problems,
draw in long breaths, etc. and say nothing for minutes at a time. This is all designed to get you to
become flustered and give in on a point or say something that you shouldnt say.
KAN Seeking Heavenly Approval: Western sales negotiators like to focus on the here and
now. Japanese sales negotiators realize that this deal is just part of a much bigger relationship.
After the details of the agreement have been worked out and it appears as though you are close to
closing the deal, members of the Japanese team will pause. They will consider if they really
want to do this deal with you is it going to be worth it in the long run, or are you just going to
be too much of a hassle to deal with? This moment is called KAN reaching heavenly
approval.
Time & Money: the Japanese view the sales negotiation process differently than their Western
partners do. We in the west see it as something to race through and quickly get done with. The
Japanese view it as something to be nurtured. They set aside enough time to do it properly. They
resist attempts to wrap it up quickly. They will revisit points over and over again in order to test
your resolve. This is how Japanese sales negotiators turn time into money.
It is entirely possible to enter into sales negotiations with Japanese partners on the other side of
the table and come out with an agreement that you feel good about. However, you need to fully
understand how they see the world and adjust your sales negotiating style to this situation.

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Can Sales Negotiation Be Done Via Email and Text?
I might be setting off a bit of a firestorm with this idea, but here in the 21st Century do you think
that it is possible to conduct sales negotiations using more smart phones and less human
contact?
The Need For Modern Solutions
The #1 attraction of using a smart phone (Blackberry, iPhone, or whatever) in the first place is
that it can speed just about anything up. The immediacy of e-communications allows deals to
develop quicker and to move at speeds that once were unimaginable. However, when it comes to
sales negotiations, things can get a bit trickier.
What we are all just starting to deal with here are the questionsthat come up surrounding e-mail
negotiations. Some of these questions include:
Is it possible to conduct sales negotiations completely via email?
What impact does this have on what kinds of information can be shared during the sales
negotiation?
When is human contact called for?
The New Rules
Using email as a central part of any sales negotiation changes a number of things. The first is that
anything that you put into an email will live forever and may come back to haunt you. It is a
great way to send information to the other side, keep almost perfect records, and make sure that
everyone involved is informed on where things stand.
At the same time there are pitfalls that everyone must be aware of. These tend to show up
whenever there are conflicts or misunderstands. The problems come about because the one
thing that email does not do well is communicate emotions or nuances.
So what are the new rules in this world of email supported sales negotiations? Here are a few
of them:
Slow Down: do not write and send emails on the fly. Remember, these things live forever. I
prefer to write the email one day, save it, re-read it the next day and then send it. Im always
careful to leave the To: field blank while Im composing an email JUST IN CASE the send
key get pressed too early.
Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires: in order to prevent those cases where misunderstandings
start small but keep getting blown out of proportion, dont use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS,
multiple !!!!!, or including flip comments (How about making a real counteroffer?).
Dont Forget The Phone: In every sales negotiation, there will probably be a time in which it
would be better if you picked up the phone and talked with the other side instead of sending them
another email. Realize that this moment exists, look for it, and act when it shows up.
Lessons Learned
The take-away from all of this is that times are changing. Gone are the days that all sales
negotiations could take place face to face. Negotiating via email is here to stay and we all need
to get used to the new rules of the game.
The experts who have been living with this new way of doing business have one final suggestion
for all of us. They recommend that prior to starting the negotiating process, all parties meet in
person. This is the key to allowing everyone to understand their body language and how they
react to things. In the end, this is critical so that you can understand the true intent behind the
words in their emails.

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How Negotiators Should Deal With Dirty Tricks: Escalation
Just how badly are you going to want to reach a deal during your next negotiation? Be very
careful how you answer that question! It turns out that the other side may be able to maneuver
you into a position where youll be willing to accept a deal that you really shouldnt. Id never
do that you say. Well, yes, you problem would if the other side escalated.

What Is Escalation?
Before you can defend against it, you must first know exactly what escalation is. An escalation is
one of the negotiation styles and negotiating techniques that is often used during while
something is being negotiated. An escalation occurs when the other side decides that they want
to wear you down in order to get you to make concessions that you normally wouldnt make.
As an example of how this works, lets pretend that you are going to sell your car for
US$10,000. Someone comes to you and says that theyd be willing to buy it from you, but first
theyd like to take a test drive. So you go with them on a drive. Then they say that they need to
get their wifes permission to buy the car. You say ok and you wait a couple of days. The buyer
shows up with his wife and says that she wants to go for a test drive. You go for another test
drive. He says that he thinks that he heard a strange noise and hed like his mechanic to look at
the car before he buys it. You take the car to his mechanic and wait an hour while it gets checked
out.
After all of this has occurred, the buyer says that hes ready to buy your car and he hands you a
check for $9,000. You say that the price is $10,000, but he says that $9,000 is all that he has right
now. You give in and sell him the car for $9,000.
Whats just happened is that the escalation technique has caused you to make a concession on the
cars price. You were so heavily invested in selling the car to this person because of all of the
time that you had spent to make the deal happen that the fact that he wasnt going to pay you the
full price wasnt enough to cause you to cancel the deal.
How Can You Defend Against Escalation?
When used correctly, the escalation technique is very effective. Youve been so worn down by
the time that the technique gets used that you almost always end up giving in. There has got to be
a way to defend yourself against this technique during negotiations.
It turns out that there is. The best way for you to defend yourself against this tacit is to call the
other sides bluff when they pull the tactic. They are expecting you to give in because you have
so much time and effort already invested in making a deal happen. However, often times what
they dont realize is that they have at least as much time and effort invested. If you call their
bluff, then theres a good chance that theyll back down and youll get your full price.
In order to prevent the possibility of the other side trying to pull this tactic on you during the
negotiation process, you need to take steps to prevent it even as the negotiations are starting. One
way to do this is to require the other side to provide you with a big deposit that youll keep if a
deal is not reached. Another way is to sign a memorandum of understanding that has the price in
it at the start of negotiations.
What Does All Of This Mean For You?
When a negotiator isnt careful, the other side can start to play dirty tricks on them during a
negotiation. These tricks can include escalation which is so common that its almost a part of the
negotiation definition.
When the other side escalates, they maneuver you into a position where you have so much time
and energy invested in the negotiations that you feel a need to reach a deal. Thats when they can
start to get you to make concessions that you shouldnt. Understand that this can happen and take
steps at the beginning of the negotiations to prevent it.
The escalation maneuver is a classic dirty trick. The reason that its been around for so long is
that it works very well. Now that you know that it exists you can deal with it as you conduct a
principled negotiation. Awareness means that youll be prepared if the other side tries to use it on
you. Make sure that youre ready for it and this is one dirty trick that wont work anymore.