They say that negotiating is an art! Well, that's half the truth. Sure, talent and sensitivity are essential, but there's more to it than that, and let's get started and understand what it is!
Negotiation is a mixture of art and science. And one of the first things that makes the equation more complex, but lighter, is understanding how both sides can come out on top when something is at stake.
We negotiate all the time, and this doesn’t just apply to customers and suppliers. It applies to bosses and employees, coworkers, partners, friends, everyone. That’s why it’s important to know some techniques that can help you with this.
Planning
If you don't have time, you don't even need to make big plans or put everything in a beautiful presentation at this stage (it would be great, but...), but it's important to be clear about a few things beforehand:
1. What is your main and real objective when starting a negotiation: here it is important to be cool and leave your ego aside. What is really at stake? Sometimes we make silly mistakes related to personal pride and we can ruin everything if we start there. The idea is to focus on what really needs to be done.
2. What are the limits and possible concessions: clearly define how far you can go and how far you absolutely cannot go. This will help you get out of trouble or be flexible on points that can make a big difference at the time of negotiation.
3. At what point can you simply walk away from the negotiation or is it not possible? This is where the element of “negotiating in position” comes in, that is, if you have the chance to walk away, the value you offer is higher than the rest of the market or the demand for your product is higher than the supply, things get easier because you are “in position”. When it is the opposite, it is good to make a good list of value points of your deal to extract the maximum and, eventually, go back to the previous point and think about some concessions.
4. Knowledge about the topic: the more you know about the topic that will be negotiated, the more routes and alternatives you will be able to create in a moment of impasse or cayman islands phone number data objection. If you don't have much knowledge, quickly seek information, references, research competitors and best market practices, but don't arrive unprepared!
Information sharing
Before starting any negotiation, seek as much information as possible from your client or the other party. The less information you exchange, the greater the chance of something going wrong or misunderstanding what the client is expecting from you.
The same goes for the other side. If you have some prior information that could help, share it. This also helps the other party better understand the scenario, the terms, the technical issues and avoids unwanted surprises when the negotiation actually takes place.
Empathy
To make things happen, try to listen a lot, really understand the other party's points and concerns. To offer real solutions, you first need to understand the real problems. And on the other hand, let's understand the following: there is the company and there are the people in that company.
Problems and pains are different. Problems are what everyone wants to solve in a company. Pains are what each person involved feels and needs to solve. A manager who didn't deliver a project on time and needs your help to deliver it as quickly as possible. In this case, the deadline will be something he won't give up, but he may pay more for the service, for example.
Anchoring
Being the first to name the price or simply stating a base value is always ideal. When you state an initial value, it helps to “anchor” a value in the mind of the person on the other side. Before starting a negotiation, many people do not know the size of what is being negotiated: is it a deal worth R$2,000, R$20,000, R$200,000 or R$2,000,000. It is important to start this game so that the negotiation revolves around it and reaches what you imagine as ideal.
- Board index
- All times are UTC
- Delete cookies
- Contact us