Every Negotiation Is All About Time

In a negotiation, time is power
In a negotiation, time is power
Image Credit: stefanos papachristou

So what’s your goal for your next negotiation? If I was going to hazard a guess, I’d be willing to bet that in one way shape or form you are going to be trying to maximize the amount of money that you walk away from the table with no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating techniques are used. No matter if it is how much the other side is going to pay you or how little you are going to have to pay them, the goal is the same – maximize the amount of money that is in your pocket. How to make this happen can be a bit of a mystery; however, it turns out that it all revolves around time.

The Power Of Time

It turns out that in the world of negotiating, the more time that we are willing to invest in our negotiation, the more that we’re going to get out of the negotiation. Not only is time the key to what you are going to be able to get out of your next negotiation, but it is also the key to unlocking all of your other negotiating powers.

In order to understand the true power of time, we first have to really understand what a negotiation is. Every negotiation is a process of discovery. You are discovering what you are going to be able to do during this negotiation and you are discovering what the other side is going to be willing to do. The more time that you are willing to invest in this process the more you are going to discover and the stronger your position is going to be.

Negotiations are not something that happen quickly. It is entirely possible that your next negotiation will start days, weeks, or even months before anyone sits down at the bargaining table. Once they do sit down, the actual negotiations may go on for a very long time. The better that you are at using this time, the better a negotiator you will be.

How To Make Time Work For You

As a negotiator, you need to realize that time really holds the key to everything. How you use the time that you have been given will determine what kind of outcome you can expect. Your use of time will enable all of your other negotiating powers. These include gaining knowledge – more time, means more knowledge. This includes dealing with the competition – more time means you can find more ways to limit the competition. Finally, risk taking is powerful tool but it requires more time in order for you to discover all of the available risks.

As a negotiator it is your responsibility to turn the time that you have to your advantage. This is how the good negotiators do it. Of all of the investments that you can make in a negotiation, investing in more time is the one thing that will produce the greatest returns. You have a great deal of power as a negotiator. However, if you don’t take the time to discover what all of your powers are then you won’t have the time to use them.

One mistake that too many negotiators make is that we tend to rush everything. We seek to close the negotiations as quickly as possible. However, what good is this going to do if by quickly closing a negotiation we walk away with a bad deal? Instead, we need to take a moment and look at time in a negotiation from the other side of the table’s perspective. If the other side is under pressure to wrap things up as quickly as possible, then that will hand even more power to you.

What All Of This Means For You

Since what we want to get out of our next negotiation is more money, we need to find ways to make this happen. It turns out that in a negotiation, just like so many other things in life, we get out of it what we are willing to invest in it. In this case, the more time that we are willing to invest in our next negotiation will determine the quality of the deal that we’re going to be able to walk away with.

It turns out that what really matters in a negotiation is time. When we are willing to invest more time into a negotiation, we’ll be able to unlock more of our negotiations powers. Every negotiation is a process of discovery. The more time that we spend finding out what the other side really wants, the better the deal we are going to be able to reach with them. Negotiations take time and it’s how we use this time that will determine our outcome. Time is what allows us to accomplish other things during a negotiation. We need to take the time to discover what we can do during a negotiation. The one thing that we don’t want to do is to try to rush though a negotiation. We won’t be able to get the deal that we need if we do this.

When we enter into a principled negotiation, we are preparing to make an effort in order to obtain the outcome that we are seeking. To make this happen, we need to be willing to invest the time that it’s going to take to make this happen. We need to understand the value of time and how it can help us to be successful. Use your time to get the deal that you want!

– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Negotiating Skills™

Question For You: If you start to run out of time during a negotiation, what should you do?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

How good are your ears? Do you feel that they are working the way that they should be? Do you think that you can hear what other people are saying? Can you hear this during a negotiation? I’d be willing to bet that most of us think that our ears work just fine while we are engaged in a negotiation no matter what negotiation styles and negotiating techniques are being used. However, the fact is that although they may be working just fine, it turns out that we may be hearing only the things that we want to hear.