The other weekend I attended a Negotiating Course (by Simon Hazeldine). I attended his “bare knuckle selling” course earlier in the year and thought that it would be a good idea to beef up my negotiating skills in a similar fashion to my selling skills.
Negotiation to me had always been about “haggling” - that bit where the seller starts with a high price, buyer with a low price and somewhere in the middle they meet. This, for me, has always been a nightmare scenario, even on holiday in Egypt. Jenny, however, daughter of a sole trader, takes to it like Del Boy Trotter to a market stall, whilst I cower in the corner.
I say cower because I realise that the reason I avoided it wasn’t because it was trivial (that’s what I told myself), it was because I was afraid of the confrontation. So i’ve sorted that one now and i’m happily negotiating in situations that I would have previously avoided or simply accepted the normal outcome. My first attempt (negotiating a better deal at the gym) didn’t work out too well and reminded me that preparation is everything (I should have known that gyms don’t negotiate on price in December or January - doh!). However, as Brian Tracy says, everything fails the first time and the average number of times people try something new is less than one so it’s important to get back on the horse.
Anyhow, I digress. I thought that I would share with you the key learnings from that course so you can negotiate for yourself:
1.) Prepare prepare prepare!
The strongest point you can have is one of preparedness (is that a word). You are more likely to negotiate a good deal if you are as, or more prepared than the other party.
2.) Don’t accept the first offer, it makes everyone sad
If a first offer is accepted, the seller realises that they started too low and the buyer realises they could have gotten it cheaper, so no-one is happy with the deal.
3.) Win-Win is the best way
It can be macho to screw the other person but it won’t pay off in the long term - you might not get the customer service you expect, or a bad attitude in repeat business, so look for a solution that is positive for both sides.
4.) If ______________ then _________________
A very useful language pattern - conditional acceptance makes it hard for the other side to not give you the IF you are asking for.
and finally
5.) No free lunches.
Never give anything away for free, as you will have a reputation for it and your offerings are devalued. When offering even the smallest thing, ensure that you get something of equal or better value in return, it will grow your negotiating confidence, and respect from those that you negotiate with.
So there you go, my 10 second guide to negotiation. Hope you found it useful!
