Shrewd negotiation tactics often make or break a business. Small companies especially can benefit from employees and owners who know exactly how to get what they want while creating a win-win environment. In a 2008 article by Forbes.com titled “Nine Winning Negotiation Tactics,” Melanie Lindner and Lisa LaMotta uncover the strategies of business experts and negotiating consultants.
Overall, these winning tactics are uncomplicated and straightforward, suggesting that basic negotiation principles and rules are often the most effective. Here are some strategies and the professionals who swear by them:
- Ed Brodow, author and negotiating consultant, points out that most people aren’t very good listeners. Therefore, if you want something from someone, let them feel like they’re being heard. Brodow uses the “70-30 rule,” listening 70 percent of the time and talking only 30 percent. He also recommends asking open-ended questions such as “What is most important to you in this agreement?”
- Former United States Intermediate Nuclear Forces negotiator Jim Thomas advocates steering clear of a high-handed or condescending attitude and recommends being open to negotiation even when doing so appears disagreeable. As Thomas argues, such communication “doesn’t mean giving away the ranch, it simply means keeping the door open.”
- Andrew Heyward, CBS president from 1996 to 2005, urges negotiators to define overlapping interests. When two conflicting entities can focus on what they can accomplish together in a broad sense, it’ll help offset petty details that can prevent a deal from being made.
- Citigroup’s former chairman and CEO Sandy Weill cautions negotiators to know when to call it quits: “Sometimes [the price of a deal] just doesn’t make sense to you, or the [target company] has a certain culture that you don’t feel is going to fit together. You’ve got to have the discipline to walk away.”
Whether offering proposals or working out terms and conditions, small businesses can make use of simple, effective negotiation tactics that will keep them competitive.
