Negotiation Articles

The following articles are Peter Stark’s “Must Read” for anyone that wants to improve their negotiating skills.

Negotiating Win-Win Outcomes

The best outcome in any negotiation is a win/win outcome. A win/win outcome allows both parties in the negotiation to walk away with a positive feeling and a sense of accomplishing their objectives. Since few negotiations are one-time affairs, a win/win outcome allows both parties to leave the door open for future negotiations.

 The Role of Power in Negotiating

Power is the ability to influence people or situations. Power itself is neither good or bad. It is the abuse of power that is bad. Power is of no value unless you take advantage of it, and the more you understand the various types of power the greater your influence over the other party and the outcome of the negotiation. You may find out you have more power than you think!

The Ideal Negotiator

When negotiating you will be dealing with one of three classic types of counterparts: sharks, carps, or dolphins. Each type have a different pattern and style of negotiating and makes different responses to your moves. Sharks tend to spend the majority of their time trying to control their counterparts and expect to conclude the negotiation with them being the winner and you the loser. Carps don’t like confrontation, and their response is to give in or get out. In contrast, dolphins spend the majority of the time building trust and rapport with their counterparts, knowing that a successful negotiation is one in which both parties needs are met.

 Nonverbal Negotiation Skills

Research in communication suggests that as much as 90 percent of the meaning transmitted between two people in face-to-face communication is via nonverbal channels! These statistics indicate that the importance of nonverbal negotiation skills cannot be overestimated. There are three stages in nonverbal negotiation: awareness of your counterpart, awareness of yourself, and using nonverbal communication to manage yourself and others. Once you’ve mastered these three basics, you will be more skilled at recognizing all the messages you and your counterpart in a negotiation are conveying, and better able to create win-win outcomes.

 The 15 Rules of Negotiation

If you think about those areas of your life where you feel deeply confident, chances are you€™ve spent considerable time practicing the skill or art. Negotiation is no different. To become a great negotiator and gain confidence in your ability to influence outcomes, you have to spend time practicing the skills you will need to become proficient and confident. Fortunately, negotiation is a process that can be learned. By following the 15 rules outlined in this article, you can perfect your skills at negotiating deals in which everyone wins.

 Using Skillful Questioning in Negotiation

To create a win-win outcome you need to know your counterpart€™s needs, wants, and goals. Skillful questioning provides you with the maximum amount of information possible for developing your negotiation strategies. Asking good questions in negotiations can be a challenging propositions and the guidelines in this article will help you decide what questions to ask, how to word them, and how to ask them.

 Listening Skills: A Key to Successful Negotiation

The best listeners almost always turn out to be the best negotiators. Negotiators who are poor listeners miss numerous opportunities to learn more about their counterpart€™s needs and goals. To succeed in negotiations you have to understand the needs, wants and motivations of your counterpart. To understand, you must hear. To hear you must listen.

Additional Listening Skills to Sharpen Your Negotiation:

Interative Listening

 Negotiation: Putting Time and Information on Your Side

Time and information are two essential elements in any negotiation. The negotiation process begins long before you ever meet with the other party, and how your time is spent before the negotiation is extremely important. The side with the most information will have a definitive advantage over their counterpart.

 Negotiating Your Next Car

Buying a car can be a daunting task, but with the right information and preparation, you can get your dream car at a dream price. Car salespeople have earned a reputation as “slick” and seem to always have the upper hand in the transaction. This insightful article will give you the “inside scoop” on how to negotiate YOUR deal, and not get taken for a ride.

The Keys to Proper Questioning

Skillful questioning provides you with the maximum amount of information possible for developing your negotiation strategy. The two main types of questioning are:

Restrictive or closed-ended questions usually seek a specific bit of information, and the answer is often a simple “yes” or “no.”  But a desire to limit the answer to “yes” or “no” is not the only reason to ask a closed question.  This type of question can also serve a number of other useful purposes.

Expansive or open-ended questions yield much more useful information than closed-ended questions. Expansive questions tend to provide a window into your counterpart’s mind.