Negotiation is part of our life.

Whether negotiating with our children, the wife, the car dealer, we are all negotiators, young and old. But in business, if you cannot Negotiate and cannot Sell, then you will be left high and dry. Great negotiators in the work place learn, adopt and apply key Negotiation Tactics. Negotiation is a sophisticated art, but one that can be learnt by most people, by understanding (a) What Negotiation is (b) What it is not (c) And how and when to apply the tactics. What is Negotiation? The fundamental difference from the business world from your home life is emotion. Negotiating with your wife/husband, family, or children is dramatically effected by one key element emotion. In business negotiation it pays not to make the negotiation personal. It is not about the other person, it is about the issues, or value of what is being negotiated. In the home environment, emotion, and the other person, is a major part of it, whether it is a childs tantrums, or fear of upsetting a loved one by negotiating too hard. Negotiation in the business world is much more sophisticated, it is much more a process of trading and exchanging things we have that other people want, in an attempt to find a mutually acceptable objective. The ideal outcome is that somehow both parties have a position that more or less meet there needs.

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests of two people/parties involved in negotiation process. Negotiation is a process where each party involved in negotiating tries to gain an advantage for themselves by the end of the process. Negotiation is intended to aim at compromise. Negotiation occurs in business, non-profit organizations, government branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations such as marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life. Shell identified five styles/responses to negotiation.[3] Individuals can often have strong dispositions towards numerous styles; the style used during a negotiation depends on the context and the interests of the other party, among other factors. In addition, styles can change over time. 1. Accommodating: Individuals who enjoy solving the other partys problems and preserving personal relationships. Accommodators are sensitive to the emotional states, body language, and verbal signals of the other parties. They can, however, feel taken advantage of in situations when the other party places little emphasis on the relationship. 2. Avoiding: Individuals who do not like to negotiate and dont do it unless warranted. When negotiating, avoiders tend to defer and dodge the confrontational aspects of negotiating; however, they may be perceived as tactful and diplomatic. 3. Collaborating: Individuals who enjoy negotiations that involve solving tough problems in creative ways. Collaborators are good at using negotiations to understand the concerns and interests of the other parties. They can, however, create problems by transforming simple situations into more complex ones. 4. Competing: Individuals who enjoy negotiations because they present an opportunity to win something. Competitive negotiators have strong instincts for all aspects of negotiating and are often strategic. Because their style can dominate the bargaining process, competitive negotiators often neglect the importance of relationships. 5. Compromising: Individuals who are eager to close the deal by doing what is fair and equal for all parties involved in the negotiation. Compromisers can be useful when there is limited time to complete the deal; however, compromisers often unnecessarily rush the negotiation process and make concessions too quickly.

Negotiation Tactics There are many different tactics that are commonly used in the negotiation process. All of them have their place, and many of the methods that have been popularized are specialized for specific types of negotiation. The level of detail the best negotiators put into understanding the human mind and how to use certain tones of voice coupled with specific tactics to lead the other party in the direction that they would like them to head is, to say the least, quite impressive. Just knowing the tactics is only half the battle, but putting them into effective use can be tricky if you do not know how to properly propose them. A few of the more common tactics that are used in negotiations include: Nibbling Nibbling is among the most popular of negotiation tactics. The actual strategy is to continue the negotiations after the deal is supposedly done. This tactic is most effective when a great deal of time has been spend finalizing the negotiation and the other party has invested a great deal of time into it. For instance, if you are buying a piece of property, after the deal is finalized you may ask for other accommodations that were not originally part of the plan for the property that you purchased. This can be a fairly risky tactic although a large majority of individuals will not renege on the deal after so much time has been put into it. If you choose to try the nibbling technique, you may not want to ask for too much as this can break down the entire process. Outright Refusal One popular negotiation tactic that has yielded a great deal of success is the outright refusal method. This method works by outright refusing the original offer made to you, and asking them to do better. Often times the individual who is making the offer will actually negotiate with themselves and provide you with an offer that is much higher than the offer than was originally made. While this tactic might be simplistic in nature, it is a well documented method that has provided many negotiators with positive results for many years. Conditioning Conditioning calls for you to place a starting point in their mind prior to beginning the negotiation. For instance, if someone started to discuss a negotiation for the purchase of a boat with you, and you initially responded by saying Youll be wasting your time unless you are willing to offer $10,000 and haul it after the sale. This allows you to give them a starting figure that is much closer to the end result you are looking for than you would have

been otherwise. This is an age old method that has always been an effective negotiation tactic. Keep in mind that this tactic can also cause the individual you use it on to not make an offer on the item at all. Calling Bluffs Calling the opposing partys bluff is a negotiation tactic that can really be to your advantage. For instance, if you have a house that is for sale for $200,000, and they claim that their bank will only qualify them for a $175,000 loan, you can call their bluff by saying that you can not let it go for less than $190,000. If you would like, you can also make up an excuse as to why you can not go any lower than that amount in order to make it seem as if you too have your limits. For instance, you could say that the money is going to cover your childs college education, and that that is as low as you are willing to go. By taking their financing problem and responding with an explanation of why that wont work, you will be able to make them come out of their shell if they are truly interested in the product that you are selling.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique
"A negotiator is asked to agree to a small favor or statement. Later the negotiator is asked to commit to a larger request. The probability of them agreeing to the second, larger request, increases if they have already established their agreement to the small request. People generally have a need to demonstrate consistent behavior."