Use The “Reverse-Godfather” Approach To Win A Negotiation

In the classic movie, The Godfather, Marlin Brando utters the unforgettable phrase “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Clearly Brando’s character Don Corleone is operating from a position of negotiating power as the head of an organized crime family. However, is there anything in this phrase that us mere mortals can use? It … Read more

The Ultimate Negotiation: A Very Tough Customer

In the world of negotiations there are the easy ones (getting a discount on that lawnmower that you bought) and the hard ones (a difficult customer to whom nobody has ever been able to sell). It’s the difficult customers that are the most interesting because they are a real challenge no matter what stage of … Read more

8 Ingredients For Baking A Delicious Negotiation

And who wouldn’t want to bake a delicious negotiation as long as they are going to go through the effort of conducting a negotiation anyway? In order for any negotiation to turn out successfully, YOU have a job to do. Specifically, you need to find ways to build trust, rapport, and satisfaction in the mind … Read more

3 Steps To Building A Better Negotiation

If you really wanted to, you could go into any negotiation with your guns a-blazing and through dirty tricks, intimidation and other techniques probably get your way. However, you would have established a reputation as someone that nobody wants to do business with. In the end, you would have lost much more than you would … Read more

7 Ways To Be Successful In A Negotiation

If only there was some magic formula for being a successful negotiator. You know what I’m talking about, some process that if you followed it from start to finish you could always be assured that you would “win” a negotiation. Well, as we’ve discussed in the past on this blog, the concept of winning a … Read more

10 Tips For Getting Satisfaction While Negotiating

Ok, so the title for this post is a bit screwy, but hopefully the point is clear: at the end of the day, negotiating is all about having both sides leave the negotiating table feeling satisfied. They may have had to give in on some things; however, in the end they both got what they … Read more

3 Negotiation Tips From The Master: Donald Trump

I believe that by now we all probably have somewhat of a love / hate relationship with Donald Trump (“The Donald” if you like). No matter how you feel about the guy, you have to give him credit – he’s done quite well for himself. What’s interesting is that as caught up in himself as … Read more

Both Win: How To Negotiate A Better Deal For Both Parties

The phrase “win-win” is looking pretty ragged along about now. How about if we talk about the much more meaningful “both win” strategy for negotiating? The key to creating a successful both-win negotiation is to remember that at its heart, negotiation is all about sharing value between both parties. If it was as simple as … Read more

Does Your Body Language Mumble?

Ah body language, the secret communications channel that we couldn’t turn off if we wanted to. When we are negotiating it’s important to remember that your body is giving off all sorts of signals that you may or may not want it to be sending. I’m not sure if you can prevent your personal body … Read more