The Accidental Negotiator

As negotiators we understand that in order to get what we want out of a  principled negotiation no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating  techniques we are using we are going to have to make concessions to the other side. 

What we need to understand is how best to make concessions in order to allow us to get the deal that we are working towards in our next negotiation. Making strategic concessions at the right time can be an effective tactic in a negotiation. 

Here are  four ways to make your concessions work to your best advantage in your  next negotiation.

Every negotiator knows that they can only be as good as the team that they have backing them up. 

In order to have the best team possible, we  need to find ways to increase the odds that our team has the training  and the skills that will be required in order use their negotiation  styles and negotiating techniques to make our next negotiation  successful. 

This all leads to the question: what skills do our negotiating teams need to have?

As negotiators, we all share the same desire – we’d like to find ways to become better negotiators.  

However, the prospect of finding a way to make this happen and learn  new negotiation styles and negotiating techniques can be very  overwhelming and this can cause us to throw our arms up and say that it  simply can’t be done. 

The good news is that there are a set of manageable strategies that we can all use in order to become better than we are today.

As negotiators, when we are trying to sell something the one thing that we all want to do is to avoid falling into any traps during our next negotiation.  

However, the problem that we all face is that no matter what  negotiation styles or negotiating techniques  we are using, traps can be  difficult to spot and even harder to avoid. 

If we can learn what they  look like and how we can avoid them, then we can boost our chances of  being able to reach the deal that we want with the other side.

Let’s face it – a negotiation is tough work. 

However, if you want to  make things just a little bit more difficult, then you can throw in some  conflicts along the way and now you really have your work cut out for  you. Negotiators can define conflict resolution as the informal or  formal process that two or more parties use to find a peaceful solution  to their dispute. These things have to be worked out using our  negotiation styles and negotiating techniques if you want the  negotiation to continue towards a deal. A number of common cognitive and  emotional traps, many of them unconscious, can exacerbate conflict and  contribute to the need for conflict resolution. 

How can a negotiator work though conflicts when they arise?

There are many different types of negotiations that we can engage in.  

However, one of the most difficult is when we are called on to use our  negotiation styles and negotiating techniques to negotiate a conflict.  In these situations we are going to be dealing with parties that may be  very emotional and they may not be open to using logic and reason to  find a way to resolve the issues that are being discussed. When this  happens, we are going to have to find ways to maintain both our power  and our status in order to keep the negotiations moving in the correct  direction. 

Our goal has to be to encourage the parties that are involved  to cooperate with each other instead of competing with each other.

As negotiators, we all believe that when we reach the end of a  negotiation and have a deal that both sides can agree to, the deal is  done. 

This is the time that we start to pack up our negotiation styles  and negotiating techniques and move on to our next negotiation. However,  there will be those times that things don’t turn out the way that we thought that they would. What can happen is that once the deal is done, there is always the possibility that the other side will demand a renegotiation of the deal. This can both surprise and anger you – why did they agree to deal if they now want to renegotiate it? 

When this happens, you need to keep your anger under control and follow  the following guidelines on how to proceed with re-negotiating with the  other side.

We all know that it is tough to do a good job of negotiating a deal. 

In fact, many people dread negotiation, not recognizing that they negotiate on a regular, even daily basis.  Most of us face formal negotiations throughout our personal and  professional lives in many different forms during which we all use many  different forms of negotiation styles and negotiating techniques:  bargaining over the price of a new car, discussing the terms of a new  job offer, or hammering out a contract with a supplier.

What do these negotiations have in common, and what tools should we use  to get what we need out of our everyday negotiations? In the end, these  are the questions that every negotiator needs to find answers to.

So during a negotiation, when you know the other side is wrong in how  they are viewing the world, what do you do? 

If you are like most of us,  you probably have a tendency to try to use your negotiation styles and  negotiating techniques to correct the other side’s perceptions. You may  lecture them about why you’re right—and they’re wrong. The problem with  doing this is that we know that this conflict resolution approach usually fails to resolve the conflict and often will only makes it worse. 

What we really need are some  conflict resolution strategies that can help us to get out of situations  like this.

Let’s face it, by now you realize that not every negotiation is the  same. 

Each and every negotiation that we engage in has its own set of  characteristics and qualities that set it apart from all of the other  negotiations that we’ve been part of. However, the good news here is  that all of the negotiations that we participate in fall into one of several different categories of negotiations.  In order to make sure that we’re able to get the best deal possible out  of a negotiation, we need to make sure that we understand what type of  negotiation we are preparing to enter into. 

Make sure that you  understand what type of negotiation your next negotiation is.