You are always negotiating in life. Be it a 10 year old convincing his parents to go out with his friends or an experienced project manager convincing his client to prioritise some tasks. You can never learn Negotiation tactics in a day but it takes years of experience and practice to master the art. I will layout some of the basics which will give you a good head start:
Plan your Negotiation:
The more you plan, the better. Always think about creating a win-win situation and make the pie bigger. This always helps in developing long term work relationships essential to business. If your counterpart starts thinking of you as a partner based on mutual trust and respect, sky is the limit.
Remember to identify the following points before your negotiation meeting:
- Must get
- Hope to get
- Issues and their improvement areas
Take Control of the conversation:
It is always advised to set the environment of the conversation and define the agenda so that you focus only on the key areas. If the other person diverges to non-critical items, you can always request him politely to focus on the agenda only.
Be Diplomatic:
A negotiation is not a debating contest. You should try to listen more. If you do not agree to a particular Idea, do not give negative statements like “I don’t not agree with you”, “I think you are wrong” etc. Instead have a positive discussion about the idea presented and ask questions. If the idea is not worth it, the other person will realize it himself. Sometimes it’s a good idea to use the 5 Whys approach in such situations.
Always be Forward Looking:
Give positive statements loud and clear to give a good vibe to the other person. There will always be issues. The main idea is that how do you get out of such situations. A very simple way is to construct your argument for explaining issues along following lines:
- Problem Statement
- Investigation Details
- Short Term Solution
- Long Term solution
Everyone appreciates if you solve an issue immediately, but people appreciate more if you discuss long term solutions as well which can help in eradicating the occurrence of an issue altogether.
Don’t answer everything:
You do not have to answer everything in the first meeting. A negotiation may span over a number of meetings. At such instances define an action item and request the other person that you will get back to him in the next meetings.
Summarize Clearly:
It is important to define action items and repeat the agreed upon items at the end of a conversation and get a verbal agreement. An even better idea is to email a summary of these items to the other person as well which will ensure both parties are on the same page.
These are some essential tips that have worked for me over the past years. It is very important to understand that there is no “one method fit all” negotiation tactic. Relationships are very subjective and tactics may vary from people to people. However, the crux is to emphathize with the other person and try to create a win win situation by being firm but not being a rollover at the same time.
