Articles
Our articles are popular amongst researchers, students and business negotiators. To take your negotiation skills to the next level, enrol in our negotiation training.
20 Best Sales Training Programs & Courses
Effective sales training has a direct correlation to business results. According to McKinsey, stronger sales training relates to stronger performance across key skill areas. Undertaking sales training often results in higher opportunity win rates, claiming maximum value through pricing and volume, and increasing the ability to fill pipelines and grow accounts.
Articles
How to Boost Your Sales Skills: 7 Surprising Tips
To hit their quotas, salespeople need a wide array of skills. From time management and people management to product expertise and value propositions. These skills are increasingly becoming crucial for even non-sales personnel. If you're looking to upgrade your sales skills, you may need a sales readiness strategy. Training and coaching can support the development of critical sales skills to close more deals faster. Here are seven insider tips that may seem unconventional
Articles
5 of the Best Sales Training Games: Boost Your Skills and Have Fun
Your sales team works under lots of pressure to close deals and hit sales quotas. How can you, as a leader, ensure that your team members are regularly learning and improving on their performance? How do you find training that's enjoyable and lessons that stick long after the training exercise has ended? Using game-based training significantly minimizes costs while enhancing retention. Five of the best games that are fun and boost long-lasting sales skills include: 1. The
Articles
How Do The Best Sales Training Activities Drive Results?
How was your company's sales event last year? Was it the same tired and tedious talk about the numbers plus a few group exercises? Too often we hear sales forces complaining of events and training that are low energy and don’t change behavior. At the same time, managers criticize low training ROI (return on investment). Plus, most reps forget their training and slide back into past behaviors within weeks. So how can sales leaders and facilitators improve on sales training outcomes?
Articles
How is Gamification Revolutionizing Training?
At first, I was afraid, I was petrified…to mention the 4 letter ‘G’ word to clients. I’m embarrassed to admit that ten years ago I scolded my team when they talked about our serious business sim being a mere ‘game’. Back then I believed that accomplished B2B global leaders would not pay for their team to spend valuable company time playing games. Yet, it’s become trendy to use gamification in training courses. But what is gamification good for? In this post, I will
Articles
Sim Game Lesson #1: Opening Offers
Opening Offers Want to quickly know whether the negotiation pro you’re talking with is any good? Ask them whether you should be making the opening offer or if you should allow others to make the first offer. If they don’t immediately and emphatically respond that you should make the opening offer, don’t walk away, run! We have been instructing clients on the value of making the opening offer and how to best ensure that your offer gives you the advantage for over two decades,
Articles
Sim Game Lesson #2: Anchoring
Negotiation Anchoring It’s not enough to simply make the first offer to seize the negotiation advantage. You must also anchor your offer. How do you anchor an offer? You ensure that the conversation keeps the spotlight on your offer for long enough. Think of your anchor as a ship’s anchor. If the ship’s anchor hasn’t sunk deep enough, the ship will be moved by the current and waves. If others make the mistake of investing their time arguing against your opening offer, your
Articles
Podcast: Sales Training on Price Increases
Paul: How do sales professionals feel when they hear their bosses’ words: “We need you to go get us a price increase”? Most salespeople love asking for price increases about as much as getting a root canal. Sales professionals worry about hurting the customer relationship they’ve worked so hard to build, and fear losing the business.This is Negotiation Expert Paul Kinsella. Calum: And this is Negotiation Expert Calum Coburn. In this podcast we’ll be discussing
Articles
Best Sales Training Advice on How to Increase Your Prices
No customer wants to stomach a price increase. Sadly though, as long as central banks control our currencies, salespeople will need to keep up by increasing prices. It's simple arithmetic of more currency chasing the same amount of products and services. Not only are buyers trained to say ‘no’ to price increases, but most buyers also avoid meeting to so much as allow sellers to discuss price increases. Fortunately, yours is a well-trodden path. Our expert sales negotiation
Articles
The 12 Best Negotiation Courses
Negotiation Courses Defined: negotiation courses teach how to create and claim value. By acquiring the skills and tools of top negotiators, learners consistently achieve dramatically better deals. 1. Negotiation Experts – Classroom & Online Negotiation Training Negotiation Experts offers foundational through to advanced negotiation training programs, as well as specialist courses for sales negotiations, procurement negotiations, project management negotiations,
Articles
The Best Salary Negotiation Training Skills for College Students
College Students and Negotiation Experience Sometimes, college graduates are lucky enough for their employer pay for their spot on one of our negotiation seminars. So, how well do college graduates perform on our negotiation skills seminars? College students almost always get the lowest scores using our online negotiation simulation role-plays. Also, college students tend to struggle to hold their own against seasoned negotiators in our classes. Despite this, our college
Articles
Sales Negotiation Questions to Get to the Decision Maker
We coach our clients to ask for the decision-makers - especially in the best Sales Negotiation Training and our Advanced Negotiation Training courses. Too many people ask ineffective questions like, "Do you make the decisions?" or "Are you the decision-maker?" to which most will answer "Yes." Why do people answer 'Yes' when they're not really the decision-maker? Simply because everyone wants to think of themselves as important. So, how do you get to your real decision-makers?
Articles
Top 5 Negotiation Skills
At the start of our negotiation skills training courses, we ask students what makes them feel uneasy about negotiating. Their answers often include: "I'm afraid I won't get the best deal." "I don't enjoy working with certain types of people." "I'm not always sure what needs to be achieved in a particular negotiation and how to get there." "I can get lost in the process and bogged down in details. I lose track of what I really want to achieve." This article gives some helpful tips on
Articles
9 Steps for Negotiation Preparation Success
Have you ever left a negotiation feeling battered and bruised like you never had a chance from the word go? Too often, I've seen smart yet unprepared sales professionals torn apart in their meetings. Admittedly, I suffered similarly early in my career. I notched my initial failings up to being part of my hard knocks sales negotiation training journey. Does the path to negotiation success have to be treacherous? I’m a big believer in practicing before the game, not in the game.
Articles
Negotiation Types
Negotiation is a part of our everyday lives and our history—from trading cards as kids to asking our boss for a salary raise or bargaining a purchase as adults. Sales training teaches how to negotiate price increases and to ask for discounts when we buy. Our negotiation skills are also frequently used to maintain our personal relationships. Most of us have family and friends we organize things with, budget with, and bargain about bedtime with. At some level, we often negotiate
Articles
BATNA Explained
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is an old saying that has stood the test of time. To a negotiator, this wise old proverb illustrates that if you only negotiate with one other negotiating team, you may end up with a rotten deal. In fact, you may end up with no deal at all. You need to have a strong alternative waiting in the wings to have the power to say "no." Netscape’s BATNA Blunder This site’s case studies are rife with real-life examples of BATNA being the single biggest
Articles
32 of the Best Salary Negotiation Tips
You're good at what you do—maybe you're even an ace. Are you being paid what you're worth? How many of these 32 salary negotiation tips are you using to get paid what you're worth? Sales professionals are still rewarded with the biggest pay packets. Are sales professionals better qualified or smarter than other professions? No, there's no such thing as a sales degree. Do sales professionals work longer or harder? Not really. So why, then, are IT and other non-sales related fields
Articles
Negotiation Skills: Top 10 Interview Questions and Answers
Ever clenched your jaw at a tough interview question? If not, it's only a matter of time until you do, or you're working for daddy. I used to hate job interviews, and I confess that I usually wasn't invited back for a second interview. I got so frustrated with the questions, so I researched psychology and business books, and I published a book on the top 100 questions. Yes, I guess this makes me an obsessive freak. This article distills my top 10 toughest interview questions of all time
Articles
The Four Phases of The Negotiation Process
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." John F. Kennedy If you sit down and analyze your negotiation preparation, specific patterns should begin to appear. It's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Without consciously being aware, most of us realize that we are approaching negotiations inconsistently. Perhaps even haphazardly. There are many benefits to following a tried and tested formula for repeated success. Negotiation skills without
Articles
Negotiation Styles
Understanding the Five Negotiation Styles People often ask, "which is the best negotiation style?" As with much management theory, there is no single "best" approach. All five profiles of dealing with stressful and high-pressure negotiations are useful. Determining which to use depends on the given situation. Although we're capable of using all five, we have noticed in our sales negotiation training and contract negotiation training that participants tend to use between
Articles
Do You Know When They're Lying?
Is lying just a part of negotiation? Recent studies about lying revealed that complete strangers lie to one another at least three times within the first couple of minutes of meeting one another. Additional research declares that you will be lied to today anywhere between ten and two hundred times! Typical lies told by both men and women include: "I'm on my way." "I'm stuck in traffic." "Sorry I missed your call." "I'm fine thanks" The most common workplace lies: "I'm sick. I won't
Articles
RFI RFQ RFP Meaning
What is the meaning of RFQ, RFI, RFP, and RFT? Contract negotiation training graduates often ask us to explain four key terms that comprise the 'RFx' processes (i.e. RFI, RFQ, RFT, and RFP). These processes have grown in popularity in procurement and purchasing. This is especially so in large organizations with professional buyers, purchasing managers, procurement managers, and sourcing managers. The best negotiation training classes teach how to select and use each RFx
Articles
Job Offer Negotiation Advice
One of the most exciting experiences we can face in life is the prospect of starting a new job. We can literally feel the buzz as anxiety and self confidence ebb and flow through the interview process. Afterwards, we will occasionally catch ourselves staring into space, tapping our fingers, sneaking glances at the phone and eagerly checking our e-mail to see if we’ve had a response. Then, that magical moment comes – we get the job and they want to talk about the job offer. What
Articles
Collective Bargaining Union Negotiation
Collective bargaining negotiation between labor unions and corporate employers is a specialized area in the field of general negotiations. However, the underlying legal and relationship aspects make these areas distinct. General business negotiation and lawsuit negotiations are not regulated by statutory provisions. In contrast, external laws mandate and govern a collective bargaining negotiation. Who Governs the Different Bargaining Situations? Many different
Articles
Giving Feedback After a Negotiation
Smart people ask us: “How do I give feedback to my colleagues after a negotiation?” Giving feedback to colleagues can be a delicate topic. As such, feedback is an area we invest plenty of time into during our negotiation skills training seminars. With this in mind, we thought you would like to know Steve Jones' top seven points on how to offer feedback. 1. Give the feedback immediately After the meeting has finished, give your feedback straight away. It's far easier for people
Articles
Value Creation in Negotiations
Our efforts to create value in any negotiation will be highly limited if we don't form a collaborative negotiation approach with the other side. We don’t want to find ourselves making a shaky agreement with an angry and resentful partner. Instead, we want to create a relationship that is solid and durable, and benefits everyone. The ideal scenario is to leave the table shaking hands, smiling, and feeling pleased that we worked together to make the best possible deal for both
Articles
Detecting Lies in Negotiations
Negotiators often don’t say everything they're thinking. Sometimes they hold back or distort information to avoid being exploited by the other party. Disclosing your “walk away” or “must have” conditions can frequently be a risky strategy – particularly with aggressive competing negotiators on the other side. How many times have you been fooled by the other party claiming to have decision making authority when in reality that wasn’t the case? Or maybe they
Articles
Negotiation Debt Management Advice for Businesses
Being in debt can feel like trudging through a mud drenched field after a heavy rain. Thinking about your debt can haunt you, whirling around in your brain during the early morning hours, while you restlessly toss and turn. You've done everything right but many outside factors are simply out of your control, these can include: An important client cancels your biggest contract Creditors demand faster repayments Your bank won't roll or renew your loan Your staff threaten to strike
Articles
Business Metaphor Examples
"A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on." Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Words can have a powerful impact. The way we use words in a business negotiation can make or break the deal. This is especially clear if our dialog is phrased poorly, misinterpreted, or misunderstood. Words can evoke visceral reactions or emotional responses such as boiling rage or howls of laughter. The language we use also provides some insight into the individuals on our own team.
Articles
Top 10 Crucial Rules for College Grad Interview Negotiations
If you're fresh out of college and going for job interviews, chances are you're at a big disadvantage. Why? Your interviewer is likely to have years of interview negotiation experience over you. Time someone leveled the playing field: 10. Aim High & Negotiate! Does a sports coach tell his team to 'take it easy and just hope for the best' before they run onto the field or pitch? Not unless he hates holding trophies. So if a winning sports team runs out aiming high, then so should you
Articles
International Forex Currency Risk Agreements (Part 1)
My Currency or Yours? Billions of Dollars, Euros, Yen, British Pounds and a multitude form of international currency whips around the world electronically every day, in a mind numbing blink of the eye. Every business person knows how easily a country's currency can fluctuate and wobble wildly due to a variety of reasons. Currency traders can raise the value of a developing country's currency to soaring heights one day, and bring it crashing down a week later. Many of these impacts
Articles
Conflict Negotiation: Psychological Dynamics
"It is easier to perceive error than to find the truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it."Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Freud is alleged to have said, "A cigar is just a cigar". Yet at the negotiation table, differences in perception are too often distorted and magnified by the emotions and biased outcomes of one or more parties. Negotiation often needs to go through a conflict resolution
Articles
What Is Win-Win Negotiation?
Ever heard someone say that they "gave away the farm?" Despite our best intentions, we sometimes negotiate too much value away to arrive at an agreement. Even when we enter our talks with high motivations and with a cheery spirit of cooperation, we have to be wary. It's wise to dip our toes cautiously into the waters to make sure we aren't about to be devoured by a grinning, hungry shark. Today, many of us hear that win-win negotiations are all the rage. Academia has in more recent times
Articles
How to Build Client Relationships in Business
What would you do? A top-tier accounting firm was busy celebrating another year of fee income growth from one of its most important audit clients, a huge telecommunications business. The audit had run smoothly from the accountants’ view, despite some hiccups on delivery times and quality control. However, overall, the advisers were happy with the depth of the relationship they had built and their position to keep the plum business. So, when the client asked for an internal
Articles
21 Fun Stress Releases and How to Negotiate them
If you work in IT, and you're not experiencing stress on the job, consider yourself lucky - very lucky. In a 2006 stress survey, 97% of people working in IT reported that they experienced on the job stress - not just occasionally - but on a daily basis. Medical professionals who frequently experience trauma and death among patients, had the next highest stress. Stress leads to physical conditions including obesity, diabetes, ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular
Articles
Getting to Yes (book review & summary)
Getting to Yes - Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury was first published in 1981. The title has become a classic read for any novice interested in learning negotiation skills. While the book is still a very useful read, the reader should be aware that negotiation theory has not remained static. Many negotiation writers have challenged some aspects of Fisher and Ury's model and approach, as negotiation itself has evolved due to rapid changes
Articles
Gender Communication Styles
Gender Communication Style Differences: Women in Negotiations Little did we know that the communication differences we experienced as children on the playground would move from the classroom to the boardroom. As the face of business transforms with more women occupying key management positions, the requirement of reducing the gender communication gap is growing: miscommunication can cost money, opportunities, and jobs. Statistics tell the story. In the USA, women
Articles
8 Effective Negotiation Training Skills
We learn a lot from school and later skills training, but the truth is that unless we learn the most important lessons and can apply these skills outside of the classroom in the tough school of hard knocks we call 'real life', our results will be less than stellar. So which are the training course theories that will serve us best in the real world in our business negotiation challenges? Learning to negotiate effectively in a negotiation does not come naturally to everyone. A few of
Articles
Internal Negotiations: Supporting the External Deal
Considerable effort is given to negotiation training and preparation by negotiators in their external negotiation interactions with clients, suppliers, partner and competitors. We have seen from our experience from training B2B salespeople, account managers, and regulatory team members, just how often their internal negotiations positively or negatively impact external negotiated agreements. All too frequently the internal negotiations are not given their just
Articles
Successfully Negotiating International Business Contractual Agreements
Western business people are often in too much of a hurry, and rush into making a deal. In international partnerships, we should spend more time thinking about how 'haste makes waste' rather than succumbing to the belief that 'time is money'. We've all seen psycho-thriller sand what happens when two strangers jump into bed before getting to know each other. Usually, it doesn't end very well, and after watching the carnage unfold on the screen, you swear you'll never do that again.
Articles
First Moves in Negotiating Global Agreements
Comparing local negotiations to global negotiations with a prospective foreign partner, is like trying to compare a game of chequers to a game of chess. Although both share similarities, with winning as the object, they are very different games. We have made your contacts, done our homework and spent time on negotiation preparation , and now we're ready to meet with our prospective foreign partner. Before we board the plane we have to carefully consider our opening moves, as
Articles
Corporate Negotiation Strategy Check-List (Part 2)
This article is a continuation from Pre-Negotiation Strategy Check List Part 1. These are the remainder of factors that corporate negotiators need to take into account preparing their negotiating strategy. 9. Your Place or Mine? In much the same way as sports teams enjoy a 'home advantage', negotiators playing away from home need to adjust their game plan and corporate negotiation strategies. There are 3 possibilities to consider when deciding where the talks will occur.
Articles
Pre-Negotiation Strategy Plan Checklist (Part 1)
To perform well, and perform well consistently, we must first learn to prepare. Ask any athlete who spends countless tedious hours preparing for a competition, or a lawyer about to step into a courtroom. At the end of our negotiation training courses, we implore our soon-to-be graduates to book time into their busy calendars to prepare for their negotiations. While many colleagues, clients, and suppliers will demand your time on a daily basis, very seldom will they remind you
Articles
Price Tactics for Win-Lose Negotiations
There are some terms that need to be understood when you are involved in one-on-one negotiations. These are negotiations that pit two parties against each other, where the only interest is to wrest out the best value for themselves. this typically results in a win-lose or lose-lose outcome. When it comes to issues involving the price of a product or service, and there is little interest in forming a relationship, you need to know how to use the right tactics to gain the most for your
Articles
Multiparty Negotiations (part 2)
Now that we have considered all the challenges that can be posed by multiparty negotiations in Multi-Party Negotiations (part 1), let us now turn to examining some really effective solutions and tactics, to overcome some of these barriers. 3 Primary Considerations Non - Agreement Consequences: One of the first things a negotiator needs, is to understand what costs and consequences may occur, should the group fail to reach a negotiated agreement. In other words, what are our
Articles
Multi-Party Negotiations (part 1)
Many business partnerships that are forged in today's increasingly specialised business milieu, often involves 3 or more partners who are co-joining into complex agreements. This bubbling stew pot of positions, needs, and ambitions requires dexterous handling of the right ingredients. This ambitious blend makes the difference between savouring a rich and inviting texture of tastes, or storming out the door in disgust. It's a delicate balancing act where everyone is
Articles
Group Negotiations
When you have a group of managers sitting in a boardroom, you could be reminded of ancient Roman days, when two or more robed members, clustered in the shadows intent on forming a power block. Plotting to cause the downfall of another member or leader. Being a Caesar or a Senator of the ruling class in Roman times, often meant a very limited life span. It was not always the greatest gig it might have seemed on the surface. At times modern budget meetings don't seem all that dissimilar,
Articles
Negotiation Place: Does Turf Matter?
At the close of the day, I was escorted into his corner office. He was the managing partner of the law firm, and he sat behind a huge desk, in the power position. It was my final interview. If it went well, I hoped to receive a job offer. So began our negotiation. Many would state that I was already at a disadvantage. I was on his turf, in his office, at the mercy of his schedule, and he ruled the environment. I'm not so sure. While these factors can provide a leg up, I discovered some important
Articles
Business Contract Agreement Advice
Once upon a time, business people would seal a transaction with nothing more than a robust grasp of arms or a firm handshake. When the deal fell apart, they often settled the matter through a pain filled contest of weapons. Whoever was clubbed senseless or killed lost the argument. Years down the line, someone wiser, and probably less skilled with club or sword, decided there had to be a better way. And yes Virginia (in the U.S.of A ), is where lawyers originated, and aren't we all
Articles
Business Negotiation Preparation
All good negotiation plans are premised on well-chosen strategies and adapting our tactics to meet new challenges. Preparation is not based on guesswork but on intelligence, and even more importantly, negotiation research. It is one thing to prepare for negotiation within our own country, but it is entirely different when we consider a business partnership that operates within an altogether different culture. If we don't prepare wisely beforehand, then we're likely to
Articles
Getting them to the Negotiation Table
We have a vision that's going to set the world on fire and make us appear like a hero, if we can pull it off. What if the other negotiator doesn't want to come to the table? What happens if we do get them there, greet them with smiles and extended hand, and they respond with grim faces shadowed with deep suspicion? To get our negotiations off to a solid positive start, there are two hurdles we need to overcome before we set out on a positive foot. The first hurdle, is to get the other side to
Articles
Building Trust in your Business Negotiation Relationships
Businesses' long term success can be judged by the extent to which they build and nurture their relationships. Every business is dependent on their internal and external relationships, between groups and individuals. We have suppliers, customers, clients, employees, collective bargaining unions, local communities and many more. Whether we realize it or not, we interact with these groups and individuals through our relationships with them. So how do we keep these relationships
Articles
Morals, Ethics & Feelings in Negotiation
One of my clients, a real estate developer, contacted me about a problem concerning a ten floor office building he was looking to rent. He was negotiating with a potential client, A, about renting 7 floors of the building. They almost had reached a deal but the draft of the contract was at A's office for approval. There had been no reply for a month. Meanwhile, another potential client B approached the developer about leasing the whole building at a higher rent than client A proposed
Articles
How to Boost your Business' Negotiation Skills
We learn by doing, and by doing, we can learn even more. Makes sense doesn't it? When we stop learning, we become like the dog frantically chasing its tail, spinning around and going nowhere. Our business cannot be allowed to become like a stagnant pond, that surrenders to erosion and eventually disappears into the ever-changing landscape either. A business thrives by remaining vibrant and adapting to the whirlwind of changes that challenge us as managers. We upgrade our equipment
Articles
Breaking Barriers to Business Negotiation Agreements
'You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough' Frank Crane How in the world can we ever have hope to extend our civilisation to soaring heights, poised to caress the distant stars, without cooperating with each other? A business that toils away in isolation, in today's churning and ever evolving global world of dynamic commerce, will likely shrivel and perish with barely a noticeable whimper. There are many reasons why negotiations
Articles
Negotiation Attitudes & Behaviours - from Failure to Success
Negotiating behavior is primarily determined by mental attitudes. If we are to excel in negotiation, as in other fields of endeavor, we must delve deeper than the process itself. If we study a process, we might become more competent car drivers, average guitar strummers, 15 minute-mile joggers or bearable after-dinner speakers. If you're pleased with achieving 45%, 50% or 55% of what's on the table, then you can settle comfortably in your comfort zone. Achieving excellence
Articles
Boost your Negotiation Listening Skills
'Do you hear what I hear?' That's the flashing, neon question mark at crucial moments in our negotiations. When negotiators gather together after hearing someone speak, we discover that we often recall somewhat dissimilar versions about what was said. People digest what others tell them and provide their own unique interpretation about what was said to them. We're typically overconfident of having correctly heard the speaker. If someone were to tell you that you have to hone-up
Articles
Where Will You Draw The Line in Negotiations?
Probably everyone has seen some version of the tousled haired child, daring anyone to cross a line he has drawn in the sand. We use words to sketch imaginary lines to warn of an imaginary red flag boundary where we will not be pushed any further. Tolerance limits appear and are applied everywhere in our daily lives. From borders to production expectations, from curfews when we were hormone driven teens, to how much we are willing to pay for a used auto. We set limits to add definition
Articles
Using a Business Interpreter
"It must have got lost in the translation." This lame excuse is not something an international business negotiator wants to use when an important deal collapses. They also don't want to have an angry CEO, with beet-red face, waving a lawsuit from their foreign counterpart, and demanding to know what happened. We conduct many of our hard-won international deals in English, which is commonly viewed as the international business language. However, many negotiations require
Articles
The Unethical Side of Negotiation
'The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple' - Oscar Wilde Welcome to the dark side! We are about to open the proverbial can of worms. This is not going to be a moralizing sermon, but you are going to be asked to look inside and find out where you stand. It's unlikely you lived thus far without being 'taken for a ride', or duped by someone. Who has made it this far in life life without telling a lie? Even if it's only one of those little 'white lies', which many people accept as
Articles
Negotiating with 8 golden steps, the agreement table
People never plan to fail, but they often fail to plan. This is a sensible and shrewd maxim that has dogged many business owners through the ages. It's the prime reason why so many intrepid enterprises fail so miserably, despite the determined efforts of their proud owners. A grand idea had illuminated their hopes, and they thought or assumed they couldn't fail. They crashed into stark reality when their ledgers bled the color red, and consequently, the life of their business
Articles
Negotiation Approaches and Perspectives
'It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly' Anatole France The worst mistakes are the ones we know we should've avoided in the first place. Yet, we will occasionally err because we are infallibly human. The best thing we can do is to try and recognize those errors that are most avoidable. When sitting down at the negotiating table, it might be a good idea to get ourselves into the habit of going through a mental checklist. This is the time to lean back and take a reality check.
Articles
Negotiation Anxiety Solved
Who We Are In both our personal and professional lives, we all have our own unique style. This is also true when dealing with problem-solving, dispute resolutions, and negotiations. Our individual personalities were formed early in childhood, tempered and sculpted by a lifetime of coping with the anxiety-provoking raw experience of life. Every situation that we face acts as a teaching aid. We learn to adapt our own unique style in tackling any future problems that lurk down
Articles
How to Behave in Japan: Appropriate Japanese Behaviour
"WHEN IN JAPAN, BEHAVE AS THE JAPANESE DO." IS THAT REALLY BEING CULTURALLY INTELLIGENT? Deciding on the right nuance of culturally appropriate behavior in Japan is not easy. I used to work with Colorado-born Fred Hevers in Tokyo. He spoke astonishingly fluent Japanese, much better than mine. Impertinent though it was of me, I once suggested to him that he was far too polite when he spoke to many Japanese. He took it well, and seemed to ponder it. We both moved on to other jobs. When
Articles
ZOPA Negotiation (the Zone Of Possible Agreement)
What Does ZOPA Stand For? ZOPA might almost sound like a foreign word for a cheer of joy, or maybe even a new and exciting soft drink about to splash the marketplace. It's neither, but if you have a wide ZOPA in your negotiation, it's nearly as sweet. Negotiation ZOPA stands for Zone Of Possible Agreement. It's the blue sky range where we can make deals that both sides in a negotiation find acceptable. Whether we're buying something at a bustling yard sale or entering into a complex
Articles
Avoiding Common Pitfalls during Negotiations in China
Western business people are flocking to the Far East. China has clearly become one of the most sought after places that offer a near endless source of potential market growth. For many westerners, the eastern part of the world is a place steeped in mystery and a culture, both alien and fascinating to our way of doing things. China is a vast potential marketplace of over a billion plus potential. Millionaires spring up like weeds virtually overnight, while millions of peasants
Articles
Knowing When It's Time to Walk-Not Talk
"A long dispute means both parties are wrong." Voltaire Knowing when and how to negotiate is one thing. Knowing when not to negotiate at all, is an altogether different matter. Every savvy negotiator is aware that there are times to break off the talks for now, in order to enhance the talks later. Reasons could include a cooling off process or to re-evaluate new information. However, there are other thorny conditions which can crop up when the circumstances compel you to not negotiate
Articles
Principal and Agents in Negotiation
In negotiations, you have to know who's sitting at the table. Some of these individuals can make binding decisions on the spot. In many other situations, the people involved represent the decision makers. They may have only limited authority. Or, they may have no authority at all. Let's look at this in more detail. Principals In all negotiations, the principle parties are the decision makers. These are the people who ultimately make or break the deal. These are the 'Top Dogs'.
Articles
Business Negotiations in Japan
Shattering Common Stereotypes I discovered many things from my 1980s consulting and training work in Japan. One of them was that Westerners in business meetings with Japanese were generally more ill at ease, uncomfortable, and awkward than were the Japanese. This went so much against the stereotypes that both Westerners and Japanese business people shared. People generally viewed the Japanese as shy violets; Westerners as sociable and extroverted. My research about businesspeople,
Articles
The Trust Building Process in Japanese Society
Build Trusting Relationships The Japanese believe that once the initial contact and introductions are completed, the next stage of the process involves developing trust through deeper knowledge of what the Westerners have to offer. This includes: How we handle ourselves as businesspeople and managers. Our efficiency, manufacturing methods, and the standard of quality of our products. Whether or not we are people they can do business with. There are times when the seller
Articles
Negotiation Positions vs. Interests
When two people take opposing sides on an issue in a dispute, they both often refuse to budge from their differing viewpoints. The result is a stalemate. If both sides find a solution, then both can win. We call this resolution a win-win negotiation outcome. You can achieve a win-win by training yourself to pay attention to the interests driving the other side's position in a negotiation. The Negotiation Position The simple reason why many people fail to find a negotiated agreement
Articles
Your Ideal Negotiation Meeting Location
The question as to where a negotiation should ideally take place is a critical one and gives rise to both well-thought advice and knee-jerk reactions. The most widely held belief taught on most sales negotiation courses and buyer negotiation courses is that negotiators are at an advantage holding negotiation meetings on their own territory. I would like to offer some alternative food for thought. Negotiation text books often make analogies with sports events where, true
Articles
Ways to rationalize a stalled negotiation
Everything at the office was moving smoothly along until a nasty little hurricane decided to tear a hole in your supply line. In a time of short supply and high demand, your main supplier is sitting across from you at your desk. He is poking his finger in the air for emphasis, while loudly demanding a 20% increase in their delivery costs. He ends his tirade by telling you that he is,' Not going to budge.Period!' Now, you ask yourself, how am I going to deal with this guy when my company
Articles
Sales Team Negotiation Training: Customized Case Studies
The Negotiation Experts make extensive use of case studies and negotiation training games in training sales negotiation teams. Simulating commercial sales negotiation training scenarios customized to our client's business reality is the best way to assess sales negotiators' strengths and weaknesses. There's no better method of rapid feedback. Mistakes in role-playing don't end up costing sales revenue or sales margin, and role-plays are highly engaging. In this article,
Articles
Frameworks in Negotiations
Preparing for a negotiation can be equated to a couple coming together to build their dream house. Each will have different ideas and visions,on how the house will be designed. They both want the house, but their interests in what they want to derive from the functionality of the house will vary from their unique perspectives. One wants a brightly lit solarium filled with tropical plants; the other wants a roomy workshop. They can either work at cross purposes and end up in a drawn
Articles
Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts
Resolving interpersonal conflicts in the workplace is a healing process often utilized by management. However, it's also a powerful tool that management doesn't often make available to front-line workers. This can be a costly mistake. Interpersonal conflicts between co-workers, can escalate and lead to harmful and bitter repercussions. The resulting damage, if not immediately addressed, can have a negative impact on both morale and productivity. The Issue of Interpersonal
Articles
Negotiating Skills give you options in the Furniture Store
"Let me propose a few options, each of which would be acceptable to us," I said to the furniture store manager in our negotiation. "Either provide us with 80% of our money back for the practically unused piece of furniture we purchased or give us store credit for the full amount. Bear in mind that we just bought a new house. We may very well purchase more items at your store in the future." "Interesting," he replied. "I'll give the owner a call and see what he thinks. Of course, as you know,
Improve your Employees' Negotiation Skill Outcomes
If your company is like the majority of companies today, you are looking at the bottom line seeking for ways to improve results. The negotiating skills of your employees control revenues, and have a direct and significant bearing on financial performance. Employees are negotiating regularly, with customers and suppliers to buy and sell goods and services. In fact, most every relationship a company has must be negotiated or re-negotiated at some point. Most employees entrusted
Articles
Public Leverage in Negotiation Outcomes
Seldom does a day go by that I don't read in a newspaper about a high-profile negotiation. Perhaps it is a union picketing when talks break down, or a board of directors attempting to ward off an unwanted merger. It might even entail the possible settlement of a litigation lawsuit between prominent companies. When I read about these, I often think about why the negotiation has "gone public." My first thought always is to assess who initiated the public coverage of the negotiation.
Articles
Gender Differences in Negotiations
In their book, Women Don’t Ask (2003), Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever state that 57% of male Carnegie Mellon graduate business students negotiate their starting salaries. However, only 7% of women negotiate salaries. This difference results in men's starting salaries that are 7.6% higher than women's. Why don’t women attempt to negotiate as often as men? If women did negotiate, is there any reason to think women would not do as well? When men and women negotiate with
Articles
Dealing With Your Emotions in Negotiations
Many negotiations, due to their nature, can create and foster strong negative emotions. Where individuals meet to primarily promote their self-interests or where the past histories of the parties involved have been coloured by acrimony, it is not surprising that often emotions are more powerful than the facts in shaping the course and outcome of the negotiations. However without emotions it would be impossible for people to reconcile important conflicts. Emotions motivate
Articles
Dispelling Negotiation Myths
After Gerard L. Nierenberg authored The Art of Negotiating in 1968. Since then, many books on negotiating followed including the ones I authored or co-authored, Winning the Negotiation, Negotiate the Deal You Want, and The Human Side of Negotiating. However, the message in a lot of the other works was that negotiating was viewed as some sort of a game instead of a process. In fact, one book was entitled The Negotiating Game. Negotiating is a game Let's compare negotiation as a
Articles
A New ICON for Negotiation Advice
Finding Agreement in a Negotiation Two decades after the original publication of Getting to YES, by Roger Fisher and William Ury, the conflict resolution classic is still unrivaled in providing a distinct prescriptive framework for turning rivals into collaborators (Fisher and Ury). Their method of principled negotiation remains one of the most powerful influences on the study and practice of negotiation within academia, government, civil society, and the business
Articles
What are the Positive & Negative Effects of Negotiation Influencing?
Negotiation can be considered as a skill that assists individuals or teams to obtain an agreement based on their interests. Ultimately, however, what we do when we negotiate is to attempt to influence others to accept our way. Sometimes we succeed; sometimes we don't. Negotiation literature is full of training tactics and strategies that describe ways of achieving this goal. Two Kinds of Influences There are two kinds of influences: positive and negative. If we want to change
Articles
Limited Authority Negotiation Tactic
Negotiation tactics are perhaps one of the most significant tools we use in the negotiating process. However, tactics don't often leap out shouting, "Here I am, look at me." If they did, the other side would see right through them. They wouldn't be effective. More often than not, tactics are subtle, hard to identify, and used for many purposes. A good example is the limited authority, or authority limit, tactic. The essence of authority limit is that the negotiator lacks the authority
Articles
Power Negotiation Principles & Techniques
The manner in how you behave during a negotiation can have a dramatic impact on the outcome. I've been teaching negotiating to business leaders throughout North America since 1982 and I've narrowed this concept down to five fundamental power negotiation principles. These principles are always at play in your business negotiation process, and will help you smoothly achieve your goals. Get the Other Side to Commit First Power Negotiators realize that you're usually better
Articles
Price Negotiation Techniques
Why Should You Ask For More? One of the most important sales training techniques to remember about the concept of power negotiating is that you should always ask the other side for more than you expect to get. Rothschild pawn Henry Kissinger had this to say about getting more at the negotiation table: "Effectiveness at the conference table depends upon overstating one's demands." The Most Important Questions Here are several reasons to think about when you ask yourself why you
Articles
Aspirations, Anchoring, and Negotiation Result
When people prepare for negotiations, they spend considerable time thinking about the factual issues, the legal doctrines, the economic matters, and anything else they consider relevant. They frequently spend no more than ten to fifteen minutes pondering about their negotiation strategy. In fact, most negotiators begin an interaction with only three things in mind that directly relate to their encounter: where they plan to begin where they hope to end up their bottom lines
Articles
Sales Negotiation Process Tips
How many times have you heard: "You've got to lower your price by 5% or we will have no choice but to go with your competition." "You will have to give an exception to your policy if you want our business." "I know that you have good quality and service, but so do your competitors. What we need to concentrate on here is your pricing." "I agree that those special services you keep bringing up would be fine, but we simply don't have the funds to purchase them. Could you include them at no extra
Articles
Collaborative Selling Training
Collaborative Selling Training The world of business has altered and continues to change dramatically and rapidly on a regular basis. Markets have swelled and evolved in size from local to national to global markets. Technology no longer gives any single company a particular competitive advantage, while their clients have become much savvier. These and other changes have developed an environment in which salespeople must adopt new attitudes, learn new skills, and gain
Articles
Negotiation Bracketing: How To Use It and When To Avoid It
If you're a plaintiff's attorney, you have likely participated in a bracketing-based negotiation at some point in your career. Either side of a negotiation may use bracketing, one of the oldest and most simplistic negotiation ploys. Bracketing Technique in Negotiation The technique is quite straightforward. The side that wishes to start bracketing begins by establishing the amount of money they want to use as a target to settle the case. The bracketer then assumes a "counterpunch"
Articles
Sales Training: How to Negotiate Price
You may already have heard this story - it's popular on sales training courses in Los Angeles and other cities. Two sisters have a single orange. Like two well-raised sisters, they decide to divide the orange in half. One sister takes the orange, peels the fruit, takes the rind and cuts it up for use to flavor a pie crust. The other sister takes the fruit, eats it, and tosses the rind into the trash. These two sisters focused on the "what" and compromised without asking the most primary
Articles
Winning through others' Negotiating Social Styles
Successful negotiators have a positive vision of their success. They fully understand their subject matter and have a firm grasp of the negotiation process. In addition, they can also read people very well. Accomplished negotiators know not only their own personal negotiation style, but also their counterpart’s preferred negotiation style - sand they use this knowledge to build a stronger relationship that will help achieve their goals. Most people undervalue the impact
Articles
Don't Fall Victim to the Competitive Negotiation Style
Do nice negotiators have a tendency to finish last - or "lose" more often - in their negotiations? And if so, how can they protect themselves from this trend and be more effective? This is a common dilemma for many nice negotiators. When faced with an aggressive and competitive negotiator, should they try to compete back or use their naturally more cooperative style? Let me start by dispelling the myth that a cooperative style leads to losing more often in all their negotiations.
Articles
Buyer Advice for Real Estate Negotiations
Buy and Sell Real Estate A real estate investor came up to me one day and asked me, "How can you negotiate the best possible deals as a buyer in a sellers' market?" "It's not easy," I replied. "But using certain negotiation strategies will increase your ability to achieve the best possible deal." Of course, understanding the procurement negotiation framework is a very important precept in the negotiation process. A sellers' market means there are more buyers and demand than there
Negotiator Styles in Bargaining
I. INTRODUCTION Attorneys and business people negotiate perpetually. They negotiate within their own organizations, with prospective and current clients and customers, and with other parties. Most negotiators employ relatively "cooperative" or relatively "competitive" negotiation styles. Cooperative bargainers tend to behave more pleasantly, and they endeavor to generate mutually beneficial agreements. Competitive bargainers are often less pleasant, and
Articles
Three Reasons Why Negotiators Fail
While volumes have been written on negotiating tactics, techniques, and strategies, relatively little is written on the reasons negotiators fail to achieve their stated goals and objectives. This article examines three essential reasons why many negotiators do not achieve their objectives. The article also touches on the issue of why so many negotiators, who are capable in one area of negotiation, find themselves literally incapable of excelling in areas of negotiation
Articles
HR Leading through Persuasion & Influencing
You might wonder whether you are playing the role of Atlas with all those corporate responsibilities that have been thrust upon your weary shoulders, or maybe you feel more like a circus juggler wondering what task is going to be thrown at you next. It's no wonder, with all these initiatives Human Resources are spearheading in today's shape shifting corporate universe, that HR executives often feel overwhelmed. Despite all the added responsibilities, the Human Resource Director
Articles
Deceptive Negotiation Gambits and Counter Measures
Not everybody plays the game by the golden rules, and even though we know this self-evident but bold reality as the plain simple truth, it is human nature to be more trusting than not. The hard truth is often that we may not see the light of the other's deceit or manipulative gambits until we have lost value. You know the signs after the event: the hairs on the back of your neck prickle, or a tightening in your gut. Your body has flashed a warning sign that something is not right, and you
Articles
The Art and Science of Negotiation (Book Review)
The Art of Agreement The Art and Science of Negotiation takes a novel and bold approach to the negotiation problem from two perspectives. The title itself reveals this dual approach, viewing the totality of a negotiation as integrating the people puzzle and intuitive approach. Art is one side of the coin. The book also examines the negotiation process through a detailed empirical approach. It uses models, mathematics, and analysis to complete the other side of the coin, the
Articles
What Every Negotiator Must Know Before they Negotiate
'Ignorance is Bliss' and 'Look before you leap' are old proverbs that occasionally haunt all too many of us. We side step some of our more irksome problems, hoping that if we ignore them long enough they will simply go away. Either that, or else we tackle our daily problems without giving any thought about planning our approach and plunge right into them to get them out of the way. Quite often, the problems that we either ignored or blindly leapt into see us land in a muddled mess. Afterwards,
Articles
Negotiation Success: How To Evaluate & Measure
"How can we evaluate the negotiation ability of our managers, sales people and others who negotiate on behalf of our company?" I was lately asked by a client. "After all, we only seldom get the opportunity to really find out what they left on the table. Few of their counterparts will ever tell us what they were truly willing to do." "It's difficult," I replied. "Especially as just closing the deal may not be so great if they could have achieved better results by using more effective
Articles
Creative Strategies To Solve Negotiation Problems
'Ideas are the root of creation' Ernest Dimnet We evolved because we were able to stand up and see above the tall, swaying grass. We could now see the predators that were stalking us, and hear them snarl in rage as their afternoon lunch deftly disappeared into an impenetrable thicket. Human beings were given opposable thumbs so they could nimbly manipulate the physical world around them into tools to defend themselves. Mostly though, we survived because we could think, create,
Articles
Books: Learning to Negotiate With the Japanese
Rapid Rate of Change Books on doing business negotiations with the Japanese age quickly, because the country itself has always been changing quickly. Facts and statistics are only good for a year or so. So, some of the "best" books about Japanese business, which are still quoted repeatedly, are actually very much out of date. These include: Robert Ballon, Joint Ventures and Japan (1967). Adams and Kobayashi, The World of Japanese Business (1969). Yoshino, The Japanese marketing
Articles
Setting The Climate For A Non-Confrontational Negotiation
What you utter in the first few moments of a negotiation frequently sets the tone of the negotiation. The other person quickly gets a feel for whether you are working for a win-win solution, or whether you're a tough negotiator who's out for everything they can grab. That's one problem that I have with the manner that attorneys negotiate-they're very confrontational negotiators. You receive that white envelope in the mail with black, raised lettering in the top left hand corner
Articles
Negotiating Rationally (Book Review)
Negotiation Is a Rational Process Negotiating Rationally is about exactly what the title says it is. Written in three parts, each section takes the reader through a logical sequence. Together, the parts provide a sound basis in how to rationally approach a negotiation. Whether they're a first-time novice or an experienced negotiator who's attended some of the best negotiation courses, this book gives the reader a smart starting point in learning the essentials of negotiating.
Articles
The Global Negotiator – Making, Managing, and Mending Deals Around the World in the twenty-first Century (Book Review)
Create a Valuable Partnership The Global Negotiator is a knowledgeable and practical guide for any business that is either considering or already involved in forming international relationships and partnerships. In our shrinking world of globalization, it's essential for business executives to understand and appreciate the fundamentals of conducting business in the international marketplace. As the book's subtitle suggests, an international business arrangement
Articles
The Heart and Mind of the Negotiator (Book Review)
The Opposition of Emotions and Logical Thinking The author is a recognized and distinguished Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. This highly recommended book is logically constructed and broken down in painstaking detail. The book's title hints at the opposing forces that a negotiator must recognize and overcome. It's a competition between our emotions and logical thinking tugging powerfully
Articles
Negotiate like a Gambler
Knowing When to Walk from a Business Negotiation Most executives delight in upcoming business negotiating sessions with about the same enthusiasm as they have about a root canal at their local dentist. The stakes are high. Negotiate too hard and the deal is lost. If you're too timid then you will leave money on the table, which in today's economy is nearly as bad as losing. Having been a strategic negotiator for a lot of years, I realize that successful negotiation is an art, rather
Articles
Credibility: 5 Ways To Make People Believe You
Negotiation Credibility The absolute cornerstone of your ability to persuade, rests largely upon the level of negotiation credibility that you achieve with your negotiating counterpart. When you talk, do they really believe what you’re telling them? Unless they do, there is simply no way that you can persuade them to do what you want them to do in a negotiation. People might listen to you, but they won't act until they believe you. Let me emphasize this again. People won't
Articles
Harvard Business Essentials - Negotiation (Summary & Book Review)
Concepts and Principles of Negotiations Negotiation is part of a series of books produced by the Harvard Business School. This book is well written and uses simple language to facilitate the needs of the novice negotiator. It's also a practical tool for any business manager. The book gives an excellent structural foundation in the essentials of negotiation skills development. Additionally, there are a number of well-crafted worksheets to help develop and apply the concepts
Articles
Power and Negotiation (Book Review)
International Relations and Negotiations This book is the seventh of a series developed and edited by the Program on the Processes of International negotiation (PIN), based at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (HASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. The foundation for this program is focused on international negotiations. Power & Negotiation contains a series of articles written by academics and professional consultants based throughout the world. The
Articles
Practical Ethics: Four Paths to Greater Virtue
Negotiation Ethics It is no surprise to me that, in this time of comprised ethics and values, there are an ever increasing number of books and articles that stress the importance of ethics and values in everyday life. Ethics, ethical behavior, and taking personal responsibility for choices carry even more importance in today’s business world. It is with this in mind that I would like to share with you a few reflections on ethics to assist us maintain that high standard of thought,
Articles
Time Pressure in Negotiation
Why Do Negotiators Use Time Pressure? In Puerto Prince, Haiti, former President Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, and Senator Sam Nunn were in intense negotiations with Haiti's military commander, General Cedras. The telephone rang. It was President Clinton calling to advise them that he had already begun the invasion and they had 30 minutes to get out of there. People become pliable under time pressure. When do your children ask you for something? Just as you're hurrying out of
Articles
Negotiation (Book Review) – Is This the Best Negotiation Book?
A Valuable Information Resource Negotiation (2nd Edition) is a must-read for both the novice and the professional negotiator. This book is packed with the latest developments in the theory and practice of the negotiation process and conflict management. The authors have drawn upon a rich pool of resources from business schools, education, public policy, psychology, and many other sources. The result is an in-depth product that delves into the subject of negotiation. This
Articles
How to Succeed When Working With Tactical Negotiators
The top priority that people have in negotiating sessions I teach, is dealing with tactical, positional negotiators. Students will present comments like, "I dislike to negotiate because it forces me to deal with ‘those people’ who use underhanded negotiation tactics to try to trip you up or fool you. It is adversarial, and I am there trying to get an agreement or solve a problem. All they want to do is trick me so they can win." The problem in dealing with these situations is
Articles
The Best Types of Questions to Ask in Your Negotiations
Do you use and can you tell apart the various types of questions in your negotiations? How often can you tell when your chain is being pulled to get a "fight or flight" response out of you? Asking questions the right way is both an art and a science. Ask the question the wrong way, and the other negotiator might act like a turtle, becoming defensive and withdrawing into their shell. Ask the question the right way, and the other negotiator might "spill the beans." Let's look at
Articles
Negotiating Foreign Currency Exchange Agreements (Part 2)
The other foreign currency challenge that can cause us to scratch our heads while our faces screw up in a perplexed frown is how to manage situations when the foreign currency is not easily convertible. The reason could be a result of the unsteady political climate of the country, or the foreign trading partner has taut policies that deliberately limit the ability of its citizens to use the foreign exchange market. The value of currencies could also be deliberately regulated
Articles
