Business Negotiation Skills:
What Are the Habits of Merely Effective Negotiators?
August 17, 2013
When it comes to business negotiation skills and the entrepreneurial process, negotiations play a very important role.
The negotiation skills of most leaders have a huge impact on the success of their organizations, and you are about to see five important tips that can help individuals become successful negotiators.
Prior to engaging in such a demanding business deal, it’s critical to know your opponents. Don’t treat them like enemies, and always stick to your goal. White-hat negotiations techniques are the best because they keep your reputation intact.
1. The Demands of Your Opponent Are Your Opportunities
When your counterpart asks for something, you have to start negotiating. An issue that has a great significance to them might not be very important to you, so you must be willing to compromise.
Establish your priorities and goals, and then give your counterpart the chance to state their wishes and necessities. This will allow you to tailor a plan so that you can come up with a win-win solution, and is a good outcome for your business negotiation skills.
Make sure that your plan also has an escape route in case things go south. As far as business negotiations are concerned, you can never know what might happen, so it’s better to be prepared.
2. Successful Negotiators Don’t Concentrate Exclusively on Price
It’s better to concentrate on your interests rather than on price. Money is a sensitive issue, so you shouldn’t begin bargaining price right away.
Besides, it’s impossible to state a price without knowing how your counterpart values your offer and assess priorities. You have to identify his concerns, and after that you can suggest a reasonable price.
Plus, if you concentrate only on cash, you won’t have the possibility to reach a win-win agreement because you and your opponent won’t be able to compromise.
A successful negotiation and strong business negotiation skills rely on mutual compromises.
3. Great Negotiators Try to Understand the Position of Their Opponents
Always keep in mind that you also have to look at the situation from your opponent’s side. This way, their issues will become your issues, and you will have the possibility to understand how they see the negotiation.
Their point of view should be extremely important to you. All individuals are different, so they have different opinions.
Just because your counterpart has a distinct outlook on the situation it doesn’t mean that he’s wrong, or that he lacks business negotiation skills. So you have to do your best to understand him prior to disagreeing.
4. A BATNA Is a Really Forceful Tool
Skilled negotiators struggle to fortify their BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). But in order to fortify it, you must have it.
A BATNA is an essential tool that you must possess when you get involved into a negotiation. More specifically, a BATNA involves you having another option at your disposal in case you can’t close the deal.
And keep in mind that your opponent also has a BATNA, so you can’t overlook this aspect. There is a big possibility for you to realize that the deal you are bargaining at that moment is less satisfying than your BATNA, so all you have to do is to turn your back on the negotiation.
Note that your BATNA makes you more powerful, so you need to use your business negotiation skills to comprehend it, fortify it, and search for methods to enfeeble the BATNA of your opponent.
5. Don’t Misinterpret the Power of Your Counterpart
Finally, successful negotiators understand how power works at the negotiation table. In case you start feeling weak, and you notice that your counterpart keeps struggling to bargain, you should take a break and reflect on the situation.
If your opponent is so powerful, why on earth is he struggling so much to negotiate?
Well, probably because you own something that he desperately needs, and he has no other option but to convince you to give it to him. Therefore, you have to go back to the first tip and apply it.
Use your business negotiation skills to identify the needs of your counterpart and trade them for your own needs. This way, you will be able to suggest a win-win solution that will definitely help you close the deal.
There you have it, most important habits of effective negotiators. Not that it’s impossible to use them all, as every business individual has its own strategies when it comes to closing deals.
Author Bio
The article is authored by eminent writer Davis Miller. He is running a site for providing workshops in negotiation. There you can learn to build negotiation strategies and even facilitate negotiations through to successful conclusions. For more info you can go to: The Gap Partnership.
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