Core Components of a Killer Negotiation Strategy

As far as business techniques go, there aren’t many more important than your ability to negotiate. Whether it be negotiating a sales order, a deal on a new property, a better rate with your suppliers or even a straight shoot out with a key employee over their wage structure, negotiation is the core of all businesses and you must ensure that you can do it well. In order to maximize your level of success at the negotiation table, you will need to have a saavy negotiation strategy. If you aren’t sure of how to strategize your negotiations, here are some key components which you must include.

What Are You Expecting?

When you enter in to any negotiation you should have a couple of different scenarios in your mind. Naturally, you will be thinking abut what the optimum result of this negotiation will be for you, i.e. what equals a big win? We don’t always get what we want so you should also be thinking about what you are prepared to accept. Finally, you ought to consider the possibility that if the negotiations don’t go well, what will your back up plan be? You must be aware of the expectation of every outcome, and have a plan in place to deal with it.

What’s Your Angle?

Negotiations are about leverage and you must decide early on what will be yours, what approach do you plan on entering in with, and from what angle are you coming from. Let’s say for example you are negotiating a large sales order and the client is offering you a price which is far too low.  You definitely will want the order but you don’t want to sell your soul in the process. Perhaps you offer long term loyalty to keep the client onside, a bonus package, an increased level of care, or perhaps you go on the offensive and see how much they really want the products. Consider your angle and then use it to exploit the situation.

Waiting Game

You will be amazed at how may people give in to silence rather than to loud voices or convincing explanations. When it comes to negotiations, there is a fine balance of ignorance or silence which you can strike, that very often yields results. The thing with silence is that it is neither positive or negative, but human emotion generally makes us think that it is bad news. If you want to win your negotiation  understand the importance of saying nothing when applicable.

Flexibility

Finally,it is important to remember that not every negotiation is the same and you should look to have a flexible style or strategy depending on the situation. This will come down to who you are negotiating with, as well as which side of the table you are on. Don’t rigidly stick to the same strategy and expect the same results, this will not be the case, instead you should look to work on being more flexible when it comes to your negotiation style.

Learn to negotiate well, and you will see a great deal of success come your way.