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THE SECRETS OF POWER NEGOTIATING

Learning to improve you negotiating skills is the highest and best use of your time. Consider this: If you make $50,000 a year, that’s about $25 per hour. When you’re negotiating the purchase, sale or sponsorship proposal, you’re not making $25 an hour — you’re making $25 a minute, maybe $25 a second! You can’t make money faster than when you are negotiating!

Here are five negotiating gambits that can make thousand of dollars for you in just a few seconds:

NEVER JUMP AT THE FIRST OFFER
Be careful you’re not saying “Yes” too quickly, because this automatically triggers two thoughts in the other person’s mind: 1) We could have done better (and next time we will), and 2) Something must be wrong here. If they are willing to go with a proposal that we didn’t think they’d accept, we’d better check them out further before we go ahead.

So always go through the process of negotiating, even if the first offer or counteroffer is perfectly acceptable, because you always want the other side to feel that THEY won in the negotiations. In fact, I’d almost give you that as a definition of a good negotiator. Two people might be negotiating a purchase with the same supplier. Both come away with the same dollar figure, but the “power negotiator” comes away with the supplier feeling he won and the “poor negotiator” comes away with the supplier feeling he lost.

NIBBLING
You can get things later in the negotiations that you can’t get earlier. Always go back at the end and make a second effort on something that you couldn’t get someone to go along with earlier.

However, look out for people “nibbling” on you, because there’s a point in the negotiating when you’re very vulnerable, and that point is when you think the negotiations are all over. You may be selling a used car, and you’re finally found a buyer. You’re feeling good that the negotiation went so well, and you got such a good price. The buyer is sitting there writing out the check. And at the last minute, she looks up and says, “That does include a full tank of gas doesn’t it?” You’re at your most vulnerable point in the negotiation. First, you’re feeling good because you just made a sale. Secondly, you’re thinking, “Oh no, I thought we’d resolved everything. I don’t want to have to go back to the start of this thing, re-negotiate it, and stand a chance of having them back out. Maybe I’m better off just to give in on this point.”

FLINCHING
It’s critical that you learn to react visually, whenever the other side makes a proposal. Assume that they don’t think you’re going to agree to their proposal, and that they’re only throwing it out on the negotiating table to see what your reaction will be.

When a salesman asks you to give him a deposit with an order, he may not think for a moment that you’ll go along with it. It’s just something he threw out on the negotiating table to see what your reaction would be. And if you don’t appear too shocked or surprised, suddenly he’s thinking, “Well, that didn’t seem to hock them too much, and maybe I will get them to give me a deposit. I’m going to hang in and be a tough negotiator.”

So prepare to “flinch” at the other side’s proposal. Slap your cheek, gasp and say, “You want us to do what?” And you don’t even have to be a negotiating in person to make it work. Phone flinches can be very effective, too.

TRADING OFF
Whenever the other side asks you for a small concession, get in the habit of asking for something in return. Let’s say that a customer has special-ordered some equipment, and you’ve just found out that there is a delay at the factory. Just as you’re about to call the customer and give him the bad news, it’s the customer calling to see if you could delay the shipment. You have a tendency to say, “Sure, that would work out fine. No problem.” Don’t do that! Say, “Well, I don’t know. I’ll check with my people and see, but let me ask you this: If we can do that for you, what can you do for us?”

Three things might happen.
1. You might just get something, such as them giving you an additional deposit.
2. You’ve now elevated the value of the concession. Why just give something away? You may need it for another trade off later. Later you can say, “You know how much trouble we had to go through over that delayed delivery? We did that for you so we would appreciate payment.”
3. It stops the grinding away process. This is the most important reason and why you should always do this. If they know that every time they ask you for something, you’ll ask for something in return, it stops that constantly coming back for more.

POSITION FOR EASY ACCEPTANCE
If you’re dealing with someone who prides himself on his ability to negotiate, there’s a danger the negotiations will deadlock at the last moment. The problem is that the ego of the other person as a negotiator can get in the way. You’re talking to a contractor about a change to your building plans, and you’re $1000 apart on the price. You can’t believe it’s all falling apart when you’re within $1000. It doesn’t make any sense. What’s gone wrong is that the ego of the other person, as a negotiator, is getting in the way. The contractor’s representative may have said to his boss, “You just watch me negotiate with this person. I won’t have any trouble getting them up in price.” Now, he’s not doing as well as he hoped he would, and he simply doesn’t want to feel that he lost to you as a negotiator.

So you have to make him feel good about giving in to you. Do it with a small concession made just as the last moment. The size of the concession doesn’t matter, because it can be ridiculously small and still be effective. It’s the timing that’s crucial.

Learning to improve your negotiating skills is the highest and best use of your time. You can’t make money faster that you can when you’re negotiating well. When you’re negotiating to buy or sell something, for an increase in pay or for sponsorship — you could be making thousands of dollars per minute!

Excerpted from a book, Roger Dawson’s Secrets of Power Negotiating (Career Press, $21.95). Roger Dawson is one of the country’s top negotiating experts and a leading sales and management speaker. Details: 1-800-YDAWSON.

END

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Fax: 630-653-2637
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