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13 Negotation Tips worth their weight in gold
A. Anticipate Assumptions.

B. Prepare well in advance
1. The Devil’s advocate (what if things go wrong?) 2. Does the opponent deserve the status he seeks? 3. Ask qualifying questions to deflate him

C. The best way to turn “NO” to “YES” is to find a middle ground – where both parties’ interests are served. Better still, come prepared with a) a one page deal covering this middle ground with a win-win deal for both of you b) BATNA – best alternative to a negotiated agreement.

D. Ask Controllable Direct Questions: e.g. who can solve this problem? Isn’t it a fact? Where? Who? When? What?

E. Do not use these words & phrases: Of course; naturally; frankly; honestly; to be honest; to tell the truth.

F. Say: “.....will make you richer and happier”

G. Listen carefully. Not only with your ears, but also with your heart. Say to the other party-“Why do you think.....?” Try to put the party’s own statement into a question for him.

H. Active Listening/Skinner’s way: Agree with what the other party says and let him listen to what he has just said.

I. Replying to tricky questions: “Why do you ask?”

J. Ask Controllable Direct Questions:
e.g. who can solve this problem? Isn’t it a fact? Where? Who? When? What?

K. Do not ask uncontrollable Direct Questions:
How and Why; is it; do you think?

L. Positive Aggression: Turn the question around logically. If the other party says, “So what are you selling?” Reply “There must be some mistake. I thought you were buying”

M. If there is a stalemate, try to find the underlying cause. Ask yourself first- why is the other party stalling? Why is he not buying? Why he is not talking properly with me? Why is he not interested? Why is the other party so evasive?

- Adapted from the classic, best-selling book on negotiation, The Art of Negotiation, by Gerard I. Nierenberg

FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT ANY DEAL
1. UPSIDE - How much can I make?
2. DOWNSIDE - How much can I lose?
3. LIQUIDITY - How do I get my money back?
4. MANAGEMENT RECORD - Who says this deal is any good?
5. ENDORSEMENT - Who else is in the deal?
- Seymour Schulich

GUY’S RULES FOR NEGOTIATING
How to negotiate. The only method that works in the real world involves five steps:
(1) Prepare for the negotiation by knowing your facts;
(2) Figure out what you really want;
(3) Figure out what you don’t care about;
(4) Figure out what the other party really wants (per Kai); and
(5) Create a win-win outcome to ensure that everyone is happy. You’ll be a negotiating maven if you do this.
- Guy Kawasaki

AN EXERCISE: When you’re on a bus or train, approach to the nearest person on a seat and politely ask him/her to give the seat to you.
- Patch Adams

38 NEGOTIATIONS TACTICS
Skilled negotiators use many tactics including:
- Analyzing the negotiation and conflict management style of their counterpart
- Setting pre-conditions before the meeting
- Declining to speak first
- Volunteering to keep the minutes of the meeting
- Presenting demands
- Time targets, i.e. Deadlines.
- Good guy / bad guy
- Limited authority / Mandated Authority
- Caucusing
- Walking out
- Concession patterns
- High-ball / low-ball
- Intimidation
- Getting it in your hands
- Fait accompli (what's done is done)
- Take it or leave it
- Rejecting an offer
- Planted Information
- Decoy
- Extreme Offers
- Nibble
- Cherry Picking
- Salami tactics
- Arbitration
- Best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA)
- Collective bargaining
- Collective action
- Conciliation
- Conflict resolution research
- Contract
- Dispute resolution
- Expert determination
- Game theory
- Impasse
- Mediation
- Nash equilibrium
- Negotiation theory
- Prisoner's dilemma

Win-win game

Avoid assumptions during negotiations
1. Don't assume that you can narrow the negotiation down to one issue.
2. Don't assume all people want the same thing.
3. Don't assume money is all-important.
Much of negotiation involves clearing away hidden assumptions:
1. Establish criteria (for both your side and theirs).
2. Get information.
3. Reach for a compromise

Always ask for more than you expect to get. Five reasons for this tactic:
1. You might just get it.
2. It gives you some negotiating room.
3.It raises the perceived value of what you're offering.
4. It prevents the negotiation from deadlocking.
5. It creates a climate in which the other side feels that they have won.
Adapted from ‘The Secrets of Power Negotiating’ by Roger Dawson

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRATEGY AND TACTICS
Here's the difference: The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing your tactics perfectly.

It takes real guts to abandon a strategy, especially if you've gotten super good at the tactics. That's precisely the reason that switching strategies is often such a good idea. Because your competition is afraid to.
- Seth Godin

If you're interested in obtaining something from someone else, always preface your request with "I have a favor to ask you" as people hate turning down favors.
- N. Bruce Ashwill

HOW TO HAGGLE
"Just say, 'Is that the best you can do?' And then be quiet," Silence is a great tactic. Many people are uncomfortable with silence. And you can always walk away. In this economy, the market power is on your side."
- Salon.com

If you don't like what you're hearing, respond with a question, even if it's no more than "Why are you saying that?"
- Mark McCormack

Talk about price last. People have tremendous anxieties about hearing the price, so use preliminary negotiations to get all the auxiliary issues resolved first. Say "If the price is OK, would you be willing to..."
- Jay Kaplan

Round numbers beg to be negotiated, usually by counteroffer round numbers. Odd numbers sound harder, firmer, less negotiable.
- Mark McCormack

"The Method of principled negotiation developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project is to decide issues on their merits rather than through a haggling process focused on what each side says it will and won't do. It suggests that you look for material gains wherever possible, and that where your interests conflict, you should insist that the result be based on some fair standards independents of the will of either side. The method of principled negotiation is hard on merits, soft on the people. It employs no tricks and no posturing.”
– Roger Fisher and William Ury 'Getting to Yes'

Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and only the pig enjoys himself.
-Mark McCormack

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR BARGAINING POWER
A ‘You Win/Others Lose’ is an Offensive Strategy;
while ‘You Win/Others Win’ is a Defensive Strategy. No single strategy works on all occasions.

Opening Moves: Actions which set the pattern for all future discussions.
- Try to determine the agenda, for example, by excluding or including certain issues.
- Recruit an ally.
- Obtain important new information.
- Gain some kind of leverage over the other party.
- Delay negotiations until you improve your position.
- Initiate action in another area which raises the costs to the other party of disagreeing with your offer.
- Link the current issue with other ones that may not initially seem significant yet later may become critical.
- Weaken the other party’s position in some way.

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