No Authority / Full Authority Sales Negotiations

Sales professionals really don’t like to enter into a negotiation naked. When you don’t have any authority to make concessions, you basically feel pretty naked. Likewise, if you have full authority, then you’ve got a whole other set of problems. Back to the poor sales negotiator who has no authority. Hold on a minute, they … Read more

Negotiating Self Defense: Countering The Reverse Auction Tactic

I’ve always liked superheros. From my earliest days of reading comic books to my current-day trips to the movie theater to see Spiderman and Iron Man, I just don’t seem to be able to get my fill of superheros. I believe that superheros, although fictional (probably – however I still have hope), can teach us … Read more

What If There Was No “What If” Negotiation Tactic?

During a negotiation, there often arise cases where we’d really like to get the seller to give us information that they really don’t want to give to us. If only there was some way to test the other side’s willingness to settle with us. Oh, and if there was a way to also “zero in” … Read more

How Do You Deal With The Rest Of The Iceberg During A Negotiation?

As the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, did a fairly good job of looking out for the parts of icebergs that were above water. What got him in the end is when the Titanic hit a part of an iceberg that he couldn’t see because it was below water. In negotiating, all too … Read more

Single vs Team Negotiation: Which Is Better?

Sorry – that’s a trick question. Most of the time when we talk about negotiating skills, we talk about how you can improve how YOU negotiate. However, in the real world, negotiations are often done by teams of negotiators. The reasons for this are fairly simple: negotiations more often than not can take a long … Read more

The Power Of Planning Your Next Negotiation

Your parents, teachers, best friends, financial planners, parole officers, etc. were all right when they told you that in order to be successful in life you really need to plan, plan, plan. In the world of business, planning is a part of almost all activities; however, it’s in the area of negotiations that business planning … 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

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

Negotiation Awards: Who’s The Best Negotiator In The World?

We all like to think of ourselves as fairly good negotiators who are constantly getting better. However, it’s time that we take a moment and acknowledge that there will always be someone better than us out there. Someone to whom negotiating skills come as almost a second nature. Whose very survival, arguably, could depend on … 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