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Roger Dawson - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Roger Dawson is one of the world’s top experts in the art of negotiating. Business people around the world respect him for his ability to improve their bottom line profits by teaching them and their people how to Power Negotiate. He has a unique ability to translate lessons gained in international and corporate negotiations into skills that can be quickly learned and easily used by executives and salespeople.
Success Magazine calls him “America’s premier business ... [More]
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- How to Stop People from Grinding on You in Negotiations
[Business:Negotiation] Let me tell you how to conclude negotiations very effectively. You don't have to use it when the other person is negotiating in good faith with you. You use it only when you feel that the other side is simply grinding away to get the last penny off your price. Or when you know that the other person wants to do business with you, but she's thinking, "How much would I be making per hour, if I spent a little more time negotiating with this person?"
- Unethical Negotiating Gambits and How to Protect Yourself Against Them
[Business:Negotiation] Let me teach you the unethical gambits that people can use to get you to sweeten the deal. Unless you're so familiar with them that you spot them right away, you'll find that you will make unnecessary concessions just to get the other side to agree with your proposal. Many a salesperson has had to endure an embarrassing interview with a sales manager who can't understand why he made a concession. The salesperson tries to maintain that the only way to get the order was to make the concession. The truth was that the buyer out maneuvered the salesperson with one of these unethical gambits.
- Never Make a Concession When You're Negotiating Unless You Ask for Something in Return
[Business:Negotiation] Power Negotiators know that anytime the other side asks you for a concession in the negotiations, you should automatically ask for something in return. Let's look at a couple of ways of using the Trade-Off Gambit:
- How Time Pressure Affects the Outcome of a Negotiation
[Business:Negotiation] In Puerto Prince, Haiti, former President Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, and Senator Sam Nunn were in intense negotiations with Haiti's military commander, General Cedras. The phone rang and it was President Clinton calling to tell them that he had already started the invasion and they had 30 minutes to get out of there.
- To Get a Better Deal, Learn How to Use the Vise Gambit
[Business:Negotiation] The Vise is a very effective negotiating Gambit and what it will do for you will amaze you. The Vise Gambit is the simple little expression: "You'll have to do better than that." Here's how Power Negotiators use it: Let's say that you own a small steel company that sells steel products in bulk. You are calling on a fabricating plant where the buyer has listened to your proposal and your pricing structure. You ignored his insistence that he's happy with his present supplier and did a good job of building desire for your product. Finally, the other person says to you, "I'm really happy with our present vendor, but I guess it wouldn't do any harm to have a backup supplier to keep them on their toes. I'll take one carload if you can get the price down to $1.22 per pound."
- To Win in Negotiations, Learn How to Taper Concessions
[Business:Negotiation] In extended negotiations over price, be careful that you don't set up a pattern in the way that you make concessions. Let's say that you're selling a used car and you've gone into the negotiation with a price of $15,000, but you would go as low as $14,000. So, you have a negotiating range of $1,000.
The way in which you give away that $1,000 is very critical. There are several mistakes that you should avoid:
- Why It's a Mistake to Offer to Split the Difference
[Business:Negotiation] In this country, we have a tremendous sense of fair play. Our sense of fair play dictates to us that if both sides give equally, then that's fair. If Fred puts his home up for sale at $200,000, Susan makes an offer at $190,000, and both Fred and Susan are eager to compromise, both of them tend to be thinking, "If we settled at $195,000 that would be fair, because we both gave equally." Maybe it's fair and maybe it isn't. It depends on the opening negotiating positions that Fred and Susan took. If the house is really worth $190,000 and Fred was holding to his over-inflated price only to take advantage of Susan having falling in love with his house, then it's not fair. If the house is worth $200,000 and Susan is willing to pay that, but is taking advantage of Fred's financial problems, then it isn't fair. So, don't fall into the trap of thinking that splitting the difference is the fair thing to do when you can't resolve a difference in price with the other side.
- Learn to Play the Reluctant Seller When You're Negotiating
[Business:Negotiation] Imagine for a moment that you own a sailboat, and you're desperate to sell it. It was fun when you first got it, but now you hardly ever use it, and the maintenance and slip fees are eating you alive. It's early Sunday morning, and you've given up a chance to play golf with your friends because you need to be down at the marina cleaning your boat. You're scrubbing away and cursing your stupidity for ever having bought the boat. Just as you're thinking, "I'm going to give this turkey away to the next person who comes along," you look up and see an expensively dressed man with a young girl on his arm coming down the dock. He's wearing Gucci loafers, white slacks, and a blue Burberry's blazer topped off with a silk cravat. His young girlfriend is wearing high heels, a silk sheath dress, big sunglasses, and huge diamond earrings.
- Learn to Play the Reluctant Buyer When You're Purchasing
[Business:Negotiation] Let's say that you're in charge of buying new computer equipment for your company. How would you get a salesperson to give you the lowest possible price? I would let the other person come in and have her go through her entire presentation. I would ask all the questions I could possibly think of and when I finally couldn't think of another thing to ask, I would say, "I really appreciate all the time you've taken. You've obviously put a lot of work into this presentation, but unfortunately it's just not the way we want to go; however I sure wish you the best of luck." I would pause to examine the crestfallen expression on the salesperson's face. I would watch her slowly package her presentation materials. Then at the very last moment, just as her hand hit the doorknob on the way out, I would come back with this magic expression.
- When Negotiations Stall, Position the Other Side for Easy Acceptance
[Business:Negotiation] When you're negotiating with people who have studied negotiating, and are proud of their ability to negotiate, you can get ridiculously close to agreement, and the entire negotiation will still fall apart on you. When it does, it's probably not the price or terms of the agreement that caused the problem, it's the ego of the other person as a negotiator. When that happens, Power Negotiators use a simple technique that positions the other person for easy acceptance.
- Setting the Climate for a Non-Confrontational Negotiation
[Business:Negotiation] What you say in the first few moments of a negotiation often sets the climate of the negotiation. The other person quickly gets a feel for whether you are working for a win-win solution, or whether you're a tough negotiator who's out for everything they can get.
- If You Don't Feel You're Getting Enough Out of a Negotiation, Nibble for More at the End
[Business:Negotiation] Power Negotiators know that by using the Nibbling Gambit, you can get a little bit more even after you have agreed on everything. You can also get the other person to do things that she had refused to do earlier.
Car salespeople understand this, don't they? They know that when they get you on the lot, a kind of psychological resistance has built up to the purchase. They know to first get you to the point where you're thinking, "Yes, I'm going to buy a car. Yes, I'm going to buy it here." Even if it means closing you on any make and model of car, even a stripped down model that carries little profit for them. Then they can get you into the closing room and start adding all the other little extras that really build the profit into the car.
- To Be a More Powerful Negotiator Never Say Yes to the First Offer
[Business:Negotiation] Power Negotiators know that you should never say Yes to the first offer (or counter-offer) because it automatically triggers two thoughts in the other person's mind.
- Basic Principles Make You A Smarter Negotiator
[Business:Negotiation] The way that you conduct yourself in a negotiation can dramatically the outcome. I've been teaching negotiating to business leaders throughout North America since 1982 and I've distilled this down to five essential principles. These principles are always at work for you and will help you smoothly get what you want:
- When You're Negotiating, Money isn't as Important as You Think
[Business:Negotiation] Let me tell you about my pet subject: When you're selling your product or service, money is way down the list of things that are important to the other side.
First, we'll talk about something that you may find hard to believe but it's something of which I've become convinced-that people want to spend more, not less, and that the price concerns salespeople more than the people to whom they sell.
- Power Negotiators Understand the Importance of Gathering Information
[Business:Negotiation] Henry Kissinger was once asked if he already knew what the Soviets would propose at an upcoming summit meeting. He said, "Oh, absolutely-no question about it. It would be absolutely disastrous for us to go into a negotiation not knowing in advance what the other side was going to propose."
- How to Negotiate When the Other Person Tells You that They Don't Have the Authority to Decide
[Business:Negotiation] One of the most frustrating situations you can run into is trying to negotiate with the person who claims that he or she doesn't have the authority to make a final decision. Unless you realize that this is simply a negotiating tactic that's being used on you, you have the feeling that you'll never get to talk to the real decision-maker.
- If You Need to Put Negotiating Pressure on the Other Side, Try Good Guy / Bad Guy
[Business:Negotiation] Good Guy/Bad Guy is one of the best known negotiating gambits. Charles Dickens first wrote about it in his book Great Expectations. In the opening scene of the story, the young hero Pip is in the graveyard when out of the sinister mist comes a large, very frightening man. This man is a convict, and he has chains around his legs. He asks Pip to go into the village and bring back food and a file, so he can remove the chains. The convict has a dilemma, however. He wants to scare the child into doing as he's asked, yet he mustn't put so much pressure on Pip that he'll be frozen in place or bolt into town to tell the policeman.
- What to Watch for When the Talking is Over and It's Time to Get the Deal in Writing
[Business:Negotiation] Most people think of negotiating as the verbal give and take that takes people from their different wants and needs to a point of agreement. That, of course, is the heart of negotiating but just as important is the transition to the written contract that formalizes the verbal agreement. Here are the things that Power Negotiators look for as they move toward the written contract:
- Want to Get More at the Bargaining Table? Learn to Flinch at Proposals
[Business:Negotiation] Power Negotiators know that you should always flinch-react with shock and surprise at the other side's proposals.
Let's say that you are in a resort area and stop to watch one of those charcoal sketch artists. He doesn't have the price posted, and he has the shill sitting on the stool. You ask him how much he charges, and he tells you $15. If that doesn't appear to shock you, his next words will be, "And $5 extra for color." If you still don't appear shocked, he will say, "And we have these shipping cartons here, you'll need one of these too."
- The Value of a Service Goes Down Quickly
[Business:Negotiation] The value of a service always appears to go down quickly as soon as those services have been performed. The value of any material object you buy may go up in value over the years, but the value of services always appears to decline rapidly after you have performed those services.
- To be a Better Bargainer, Bracket Your Objective
[Business:Negotiation] Whether you're bargaining in your favorite antique store, negotiating for an increase in pay, or trying to get the rock-bottom price for a new car, you'll do better if you use a technique that negotiators call Bracketing. This means that your initial proposal should be an equal distance on the other side of your objective as their proposal.
- Ask For More Than You Expect to Get
[Business:Negotiation] One of the cardinal rules of Power Negotiating is that you should ask the other side for more than you expect to get. Henry Kissinger went so far as to say, "Effectiveness at the conference table depends upon overstating one's demands." Think of some reasons why you should do this:
- Win-Win Power Negotiating
[Business:Negotiation] No negotiation is successful unless the other side feels that they won.
You will learn how to accomplish that in this article.
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