What's the best thing you can do when negotiating with someone who clearly is a better negotiator?

Hi Joel,

I myself is not much of a negotiator but I work with 2 main principles when negotiating:

- How important the deal is for me? Is it adding value to me and at the same time I don't have to compromise my ideology and work ethics.

- And most importantly need to know when to walk away from the table as fear of losing is what makes us compromise.

Most likely if you are able to pass on this fear to the other party, you would be in a better place.

Hope it helps.
Cheers.

If you know what you want and you stick to your budget on that, the differences in negotiation skills become irrelevant.

for example, if you go to a car salesman and tell him you can only afford $25,000 for his car, then all the negotiation skills in the world wont help him get $26,000 out of you. Unless you change your mind and decide that you really can afford to pay $26k.

SO maybe the thing to do is know in your own mind what it is that you will accept as a fair and reasonable outcome and anything you get over and above that is a bonus.

And as Anuraag has correctly pointed out, its fear of loss that drives you to compromise. Sometimes the fact that you could not reach an agreement on something is the win: because you are not locked into s shitty deal that you cannot afford. SO walking away is potentially the best outcome.

good luck with the horse trading:)

BC

Ask Questions!! He who asks the questions controls the conversation!

Pete Sachs

I think the best thing here is to identify what you MUST retain or have VS what you can live without....

From there I think it is important to come in to the conversation with the strategy of finding a way to set up an agreement framework before the meeting/ conversation and continuing to find ways to agree, even when you disagree.

Eg - I can see how that would be important to you, if I was in your position It would be important for me until I found out ..... insert your rebuttal....

The more agreement you can get & the clearer you are about what is really important for you the more flexible the conversation can be.

In such a small space this is the snowflake on a larger ice berg - one of the best books I have read, on negotiating is, never split the difference - negotiating like your life depends on it,

I hope that adds some value

Hi Joel,
Negotiating can be a Win Win, a Win Lose, or even a Lose Lose.

You can learn to become a better negotiator. I have some books, and other training materials from some very good negotiators. I'm happy to help out if I can.

What type of transaction are you trying to negotiate?