Terms and Conditions MATTER A lot of people think negotiations are all, or mostly, about price. Experienced negotiators know that Terms and Conditions matter MORE! I tend to tell a lot of business stories, but there's a lot of negotiations that happen on a personal level that may drive a point home even [...]
Negotiation Meets Sustainability: I have been exploring the theme of how effective negotiation is compatible with a mindset of sustainability, and not focused on simply price and cost. The proliferation of Impact Investing is a clear sign that having a purpose to do good and not just make profit is the way forward, and [...]
Negotiation Meets Sustainability – A Personal Story I talked in my last blog about how negotiation can genuinely create lasting and sustainable benefits for all stakeholders by focusing on needs and not wants, working on really understanding the other side’s sheet of paper, not falling prey to one’s ego and listening. This will then lead [...]
Is Negotiation Compatible with Having a Goal of Sustainability? Negotiation is about getting the best deal we can, isn’t it? So, how can we think sustainably when we are negotiating with customers and suppliers and we have financial targets to hit and bosses to impress? Although what does “sustainability” mean anyway? In business it’s about [...]
There’s an old saying: “Don’t assume, because it’ll make and A$$ out of U and ME!” As a professional negotiator I say: WRONG, we should make LOTS of assumptions, but we need to test them by asking great questions. A story came up in a memory on FaceBook, reminding me how impactful assumptions [...]
How to Negotiate Salary or a Job Offer Before the “how to negotiate salary or a job offer”, thoughts on the “if”, or "why you definitely should. A lot of people are afraid to negotiate, or at least they don’t like it. Of those, many will begrudgingly negotiate for something / someone else, but [...]
Why Take-It-Or-Leave-It Is Not a Good Negotiation Strategy There exists and old saying, something of something is better than 100% of nothing. This saying is a perfect bridge to a conversation on the “take-it-or-leave-it” tactic in negotiations. I’ll address three questions here Is “take-it-or-leave-it” a good tactic to use? Should it be used? Unfortunately, [...]
3 Ways to Build Trust in a Negotiation Negotiators have a well-earned reputation for being less than transparent with each other – and some outright lie… Here are 3 ways a negotiator can build trust without losing leverage. Establish ground rules (that you’re willing to live by… trust is a 2-way street, no one [...]
Create a Deadline Get Them to Negotiate Understand the Market Determine the Budget Create a Deadline All negotiators know that each party will tend to make concessions at the deadline. Furthermore, most negotiators realize that both sides have deadlines (although many sellers erroneously don’t truly believe this….convinced buyers can wait forever). So therein lies [...]
Namdaemun Market (South Korea) – NO DEAL! On a recent trip to South Korea’s Namdaemun market I was reminded of how small and yet diverse the world is. Keep in mind, Koreans in general are known to be shrewd negotiators, and street vendors regardless of culture tend to be among the toughest (a supporting [...]
