Improving your ability to negotiate effectively

An essential first step is to train yourself to observe and recognise what is happening during a negotiation. Many of the exercises presented in this chapter have been designed to help you observe others and monitor your own behaviour and identify areas for improvement. Working on these exercises can help you build up a profile of the way you typically behave when negotiating. It can help you negotiate effectively

For example:

• How do you respond to others? Are you easily put off? If your opponent fails to answer a probing question do you typically repeat the question and then stay silent until it is answered? Or do you typically respond by asking an ‘easier (and from your point of view less satisfactory) question, suggest an answer for the other party, or simply move on?
• Consider whether you tend to favour certain tactics and ignore others?
• Are you inclined towards being more competitive or more collaborative?
• Do you vary your style depending on the circumstances?

How satisfied are you with the outcomes you achieve? Do you think you could do better? If so, where do you need to focus attention – on specific behaviours, tactics or your overall negotiating strategy? Preparation is also important. In addition to some of the points highlighted earlier in this chapter, and specified in Exercise 10.2, it can be helpful to know as much as possible about your opponents. What kinds of assumptions do they make about negotiating? Do they see it exclusively in terms of a win-lose competition or are they prepared to consider the possibility of a win-win collaborative activity? At a different level, are they likely to ask probing questions? Can they be easily put off? How persistent are they? Researching your opponent in this way can be extremely useful when deciding which negotiating tactics and strategies to employ.