Has this ever happened to you? Those 138 tips and tactics you memorized at the negotiation seminar... you can't remember one. Your mind races to determine which negotiation personality type you could categorize this hard-bargainer under and all you can come up with is 'jerk.' (Unfortunately, this fifth personality type wasn't discussed!)
And if you're like most people, chances are you're going to slash your price to get the deal. It's no wonder buyers use this tactic all the time - - it works!
Business negotiation has been made more complex than it needs to be, and that's far worse than confusing - it's disempowering. What keeps the deal afloat or makes it sink isn't pulling one perfect response out of a arsenal of a dozen, two dozen or 200 negotiation tactics. It has nothing to do with whether the person sitting on the other side of the table is the strong, silent type, a motor mouth, obsessive compulsive or ADHD.
Whether you're haggling over the price of a flea-market watch or trying to win a global multi-million dollar deal, every negotiation hinges on only two elements:
-
Consequences of No Agreement
-
Trades
In other words, what will happen if they walk away from this deal and what are they willing to trade to move it forward? What will happen if we walk away from this deal and what are we willing to trade to move it forward?
Here's the rub: to make this optimally effective, you must think through nearly every aspect of what you potentially have to offer, what the competition has to offer, and the gap between the two -- what you have that the competition doesn't. Then, you have to think through what each side is willing to trade to close the deal.
If you'd like to know more, please click here to request a three-page article entitled, "Rethink Those Tips and Tactics, Powerful Negotiation is Simple."
