Basic Negotiation Strategies
Negotiation is the art of persuasion. It is neither inherently hostile nor cordial. It is a transformative art meaning it evolves according to the situation. All negotiations are based around the idea or leverage. Like anything in life, certain things are worth more than others depending on who wants them and why.
For example, take a couple that owns a house. The house is normally valued around $500,000. Now imagine that the same couple is getting divorced. The husband wants to sell the house as quick and possible and move on. The wife loves the house and can’t image selling it. This situation happens more often than you may think. Depending on how you look at the situation either party can be considered to have greater or lesser leverage. It all depends on the available information and the negotiation strategy selected.
Example Negotiation Strategy:
1. Understand what you are negotiating over. It is difficult to negotiate a good deal if you do not understand what you have.
2. Understand the other Party. Understanding leads to compromise. The better you understand the party sitting across the table from you, the easier it will be to begin to decipher the reasons behind a particular offer. Things such as personality, fear and anger come out during negotiations.
3. Identify the Underlying Reasons. This may be the hardest part of the negotiation. It involves taking the information that you have learned about the subject property and the other party and determining why the other party wants or does not want the property. Knowing why allows you the flexibility to pivot and create custom solutions to your problem. This is an on-going step.
4. Repeat Step 3 on yourself. You need to understand your own weaknesses in a negotiation. Leverage works both ways.
4. Negotiate: This step varies greatly based on the individual and specific need of the conversation. Some people are passive while some are aggressive. There is no right or wrong way so long as you get the agreement you want in the end. The goal of the negotiation should be to create compromise on neutral points while leveraging information that you have learned in the prior steps to your advantage. Other popular technics involve creating win-win solutions by focusing on commonalities. Still others involve staring with a no and leading the other party unconsciously into an agreement. Keep the end goal in mind.
5. Put it in writing.
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