Negotiation strategies that make money

If you avoid negotiating because you find it too uncomfortable, well then you not only miss out on many opportunities, you also lose a lot of money. If you don’t ask you don’t get.   If you don’t negotiate you will always pay the full price. If you don’t negotiate your salary you will never be able to get the pay rise that you deserve.   People don’t just hand something to you, you need to ask for it and then negotiate. If you have a fear of negotiating, chances are you try to avoid it. If you avoid negotiating, you will never lose your fear of it. What you need to do is expose yourself to negotiations; embrace it by practising to negotiate as often as possible. Fortunately, there are many opportunities where you can practice and improve your negotiation skills daily. Whether it is negotiating with your kids over bed time, your spouse over where to go for dinner, the bank over fees or at work over workload, there are opportunities everywhere to negotiate. ...

Negotiation is uncomfortable, it put us under pressure, and it is something most of us want to get over and done with as soon as possible. A negotiator who is not trained well is not able to think clearly under pressure and might make mistakes such as talking too much and sharing information that should have not been shared. Here are the 5 most common negotiation mistakes that people make; it is important to be aware of these and think of strategies overcome these mistakes and become a better negotiator. 1                 Being unprepared We are all time poor and rush to get things done. It is therefore even more important to set priorities and make time to prepare. When preparing you uncover important information and gain control and power. It is vital to understand what is important to the other party, how they will approach the negotiation and how they might react to your demands and proposals. It...

Social media has changed the way we interact; we are able to voice our opinion and with-it conflict has increased. With so many social media outlets we can discuss, voice our opinions and shout at each other. We tend to become more courageous and outrageous on social media whilst hiding behind our computers or mobile phones. With this barrier we feel empowered and entitled to speak out on social media, often without understanding the full impact of our actions. When we are enraged, we might type messages in the heat of the moment and post them on social media which we might later regret. Once it is out there it is hard to get back. Social media is certainly not the place to resolve conflict, it is unfortunately a place where conflict is created. Social media is a great platform to voice opinion and communicate instantly across the world it is however important to realise the traps that we can all fall into. Before you post something make sure it is respectful and ...

While Christmas is all about spending time with family it can also be hard work. Christmas time is where everyone has to be in a good mood and feels obliged to take part in the family festivities whether one likes it or not. In reality Christmas can be very stressful and draining. Christmas can be a minefield of disputes, from who is hosting it this year, to whether or not to do presents and to the overbearing grand parents who are competing over who has the best and most expensive presents for the grandchildren just to mention some. Here is some practical advice that might help navigate those minefields and get through Christmas without major injuries. Set your expectations early If you are dreading to go to the family Christmas lunch but you feel obliged to, then have another commitment on the day which means that you can only be there for 2 hours or so. Make sure you condition the family early on so it does not come as a surprise on the day. Be tolerant and pick your bat...

Have you ever been in a difficult negotiation where you did something or reacted to something in the heat of the moment and regretted it not long after? Perhaps you overreacted and said something or did something that was absolutely irrational? Later on you and those around you wondered what had just happened. The consequences might have been terrible, a missed opportunity perhaps? You were hijacked by your emotions and reacted in an irrational outburst. Such outbursts can have substantial damage to your reputation, career and negotiation outcome. It is therefore important to understand what is occurring to our brains in these situations and how to be in charge of these amygdala hijacks. The term ‘amygdala hijack’ was created by Daniel Goleman who has written many books on emotional intelligence. The emotional part of our brain is the amygdala where our fight or flight response resides. When we are under threat our body is flooded with stress hormones and the amygdala reacts i...

In 2015, Arnott’s biscuits, Australia’s largest biscuit manufacturer, owned by Campbell Soup Co., announced a 10% price increase of most of their products. Coles Supermarkets did not accept the price increase and labelled it as unjustified. Both parties were not willing to negotiate and consequently Arnott’s stopped supplying Coles with their products.  This standoff lasted for two weeks and Coles eventually accepted some price increases on some of the products but not on all of them. Coles and Arnott’s went from an initial ‘non-negotiable’ to a ‘negotiable’ position and the two parties continue to do business together. The two parties do need each other, Arnott’s is an iconic brand and their products can’t be missing in supermarket shelves; and Coles is one of Arnott’s major customers. Initially both parties displayed their egos which resulted in a standoff. When both parties use their ego in a negotiation it becomes counterproductive and sabotages the negotiat...

BATNA stands for Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. A BATNA is your power and the more BATNAs you have the more power you have in the negotiation. When you are buying a car, you have hundreds of BATNAs. There are lots of car dealers out there all wanting to sell you a car. Since there are so many alternatives your bargaining power is high. You can play the car dealers off against each other and you can use time and geography to your advantage. Time: find out when is the best time to buy; is it end of month when the car dealer needs to meet their budget? Or maybe end of financial year or end of year is better. Geography: If you are living in a big city why not go out of the city and buy your car from a dealer in a small town; you might get a better deal there than what you would in the city. What about when you are buying a house; if you buy the house to live in chances are you start to get emotionally attached to it and really want this house.  Real Es...