Negotiating 7 Top Tips

Negotiation Top 7 Tips – Consider Negotiation as a Game

It’s important to understand your own conscious and unconscious rules and also about making an effort to figure out what your opposite number’s rules are as well.

Here you have the Negotiation Top 7 Tips along with a few other hints to make negotiation more fun and less arduous.

• 1. Know the Rules
• 2. Know Your Bottom Line
• 3. Give Something Away
• 4. Keep Something Back
• 5. Don’t Be Adversarial
• 6. Listen to the Other Side
• 7. Change Your Want

1. Know the Rules

Identify the rules you follow when entering into a negotiation and identify the expectations you have about how you think other people should behave.

If you pay really good attention you can probably figure out what the other side’s negotiating rules are.

You can come a cropper if you expect others to follow your rules if theirs are different.

2. Know Your Bottom Line

Whatever the level of negotiation, it’s essential to be clear about what is non-negotiable.

Although it’s always wise to be flexible, you have to know for yourself what you won’t compromise on.

You don’t have to declare that upfront (see Hint 4); at the same time, you do need to strategise how to achieve it.

3. Be Willing to Give Something Away

In order to better achieve what you want, make sure you have a few giveaways to add to the mix.

Making concessions helps you look more accommodating and people often feel compelled to return the favour by making concessions back.

Be generous without giving the whole shop away.

4. Keep Something Back

Being too accommodating means you might indeed end up giving the shop away, so hold back.

There’s no need to declare your bottom line the minute the negotiations start.

By taking it slowly you also get to gauge how the other side is reacting and you can adjust your tactics accordingly.

5. Don’t Be Adversarial

Have easier negotiations. A lot of negotiations end up being a fight because there’s an expectation that it will be a difficult negotiation.

If you go in with the attitude that both sides can get what they want (that cliché of win-win is a great place to end up), your body language, behaviour, and approach will all reflect that and make you better equipped to handle what comes across the table.

6. Listen to What the Other Side Wants

Listening to what people want gives you insights into their rules, what they consider important, what they might accept as a compromise, what motivates them, and, conversely, what will make them bristle and shut down. All of this knowledge is particularly important when dealing with unhappy customers in customer service situations.

Saving Face in Negotiations is a powerful way to move things forward.

7. Be Prepared to Change Your Want

This is my personal favourite of the negotiating tips and transformed the way I negotiated once I realised what a great tool it was.

Back off from the bottom line and change what you want.

You don’t have to give up your bottom line, you just need to be prepared to wait longer to achieve it.

If you’re in the middle of a difficult negotiation hanging on to your bottom line may turn things highly adversarial.

If you can shift your want to building rapport or developing the relationship between you, you have a far better chance of getting what you want in the long run.

By Jo Ellen Grzyb, Director of Impact Factory

Read – 10 Tips To Negotiate Successfully

See Also – How Women Can Negotiate Like Pros

Negotiating Tips

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Negotiating 7 Top Tips