Improve your negotiation skills

Planning
 How to plan your negotiations
Rewards in an organization go to: • Minor Negotiations happen in a business almost
• People who can think ahead. daily and might not require formal planning.
• React quickly • But with more important issues formal planning is
• beneficial.
Improvise
• Thorough preparation.
 Planning for Conflict
The issues and positions in a negotiation can be shown like this:

We want
They want
 The need to properly plan is
very important because not
only do you need to know all
the other sides positions but
you also need to know what
you exactly want.
 Many negotiators either
don’t plan at all or rely on
their instincts to direct them
which can later cause
problems.
 Unskilled Negotiators
devote too much time
In the authors example
concentrating on one
of the franchise
issue which they think is negotiation in Greece.
most important. The first party’s new and
extreme program
 This makes a encouraged the other
Salesperson look pushy party to act in a similar
and self centered. way.
 This discourages
cooperation resulting in
the other party also
insisting on it’s extreme
position.
 Planning for Cooperation
 More skilled negotiators are diplomatic and emotionally
intelligent.
 They give consideration to their own positions and to the
expected positions of the other side.
 So that common ground might be found.

By focusing attention on that common ground negotiators

develop a better strategy too:
 Ensure that common ground will be introduced early in the
discussion.
 Promote an attitude of cooperation.
 Create links between Common ground and unshared
positions.
 Planning the process
• A negotiation plan is used as a guideline not as a unchangeable course of action.
• Planning in a negotiation also considers what the other party plans to do.
• Which might be difficult to discern if you are meeting the party for the first time.
• Have your party can play the role of the other party in order to make comparisons before hand.

Create a planning form:

Advantages:
 Putting thoughts down on paper helps you sort them out.
 Contribution from all team members.
 Review of plan.
We need to make sure that our plans are realistic.
Team Negotiations
 Mostly negotiations are conducted by a team of
individuals, rather than one person.
 More brainpower
 Increases odds for success
 But all the team members have to be good at
negotiating.

Disadvantages of team negotiations

 Often the team is not on the same page
 Takes time.
Preparing the team:
 Decide who is your company must be included
 Determine and state the objective of the negotiation
 Prepare team members for their roles
 Determine firm specifications
 Analyze the relative strengths of the negotiating parties
 Brief the team on the agenda
 Give your team a final briefing or an actual rehearsal

To prepare your self you can list down all the items you are going to negotiate indicate which
items you would like to ‘win’ but which you can also toss away if you have to to close the deal or
to preserve the really important issues.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA0DParCiww