Good negotiating skills are essential to the success of your caeer. It’s important to realize that a negotiated rupee is a bottom line profit for your company , not a gross revenue profit.

 WHY DO SMART NEGOTIATORS MAKE SOME DUMBS MOVES?

Good negotiating skills are essential to the success of your business. It’s important to realize that a negotiated rupee is a bottom line profit, not a gross revenue profit. All of your expenses are going to stay the same whether you negotiate well or not. The fun parts of negotiating are the tactics: Using them and recognizing them when they are used on you. Here are my top  negotiating tactics. See how much money you can make when you use them!

1.    Showing Your Interest: Prove you're listening by using body language or brief verbal replies that show interest and concern. Simple phrases such as "yes," "OK" or "I see" effectively show you are paying attention. This encourages the other person to continue talking and relinquish more control of the situation to the negotiator.

2.    Ask For More Than You Expect to Get. International negotiators call this the key to success at the bargaining table. It’s deceptively simple, but there are many profound reasons for doing it:
- You might just get what you’re asking for, and the only way you can find out is to ask.
- It creates some negotiating room. This makes it easier to get what you really want.
- When you’re selling, it raises the perceived value of your product or service.
- It creates a climate where the other person can have a win with you.
- It prevents deadlocks when dealing with an egotistical negotiator who is determined to have a win with you.

3.    Open-Ended Questions: Use open-ended questions instead of "why" questions, which could imply interrogation. If you do most of the talking, you decrease the opportunities to learn about other person..    Effective open-ended questions include, "Can you tell me more about that?" "I didn't understand what you just said; could you help me better understand by explaining that further?" and, "Could you tell me more about what happened to you today?"

5.    "I" Messages: Negotiators have to avoid being provoking when they express how they feel about certain things the other person says or does. Using "I" statements lets you ostensibly shed the negotiator role and react to the subject as just another person.

6.    For instance, you might say, "We've been talking for several hours, and I feel frustrated that we haven't been able to come to an agreement." This is also an effective tactic if the other person verbally attacks, because it lets you respond with, "I feel frustrated when you scream at me, because I'm trying to help you."Remember: Never get pulled into an argument or trade personal attacks with a subject.

7.    Effective Pauses: Any good interviewer knows the power of the long, awkward silence. People tend to speak to fill spaces in a conversation. Therefore, you should, on occasion, consciously create a space or void that will encourage the other person to speak and, in the process, provide additional information.

8.    Never Say “Yes” to Their First Offer. When you say “Yes” to the first offer, you automatically trigger two reactions in the other person’s mind: Reaction One: We could have done better: If they are eager to accept our first proposal, we could have gotten more.Reaction Two: Something must be wrong. If they are saying “Yes” to a proposal that we didn’t think they would. There must be something going on that we don’t understand.

9.     Bracket Your Objective. Assume that you will end up midway between the two opening negotiating positions. It’s not always true that you’ll end up at the midpoint, but it’s a very good assumption to make.

10.Options Give You Power. This principle underlies all power in a negotiation. The side that has the most options has the most power. Work to let the other side know that you have options. Limit their perception of options by positioning yourself as different from your competitors.

11. Flinch at the Other Side’s Proposal. This is the number one mistake that poor negotiators make. They don’t flinch at the other side’s proposal. Always react with shock and surprise that they would have the nerve to ask you for a concession.

12.Emotion Labeling: This means attaching a tentative label to the feelings expressed or implied by other person's words and actions. This shows you are paying attention to the emotional aspects of what other person is conveying. When used effectively, emotion labeling is one of the most powerful skills available to negotiators because it helps identify the issues and feelings driving the other person's behavior.

13.Mirroring: Repeating the last words or main idea of other person's message. This indicates interest and understanding. For example, a subject may say, "I'm sick and tired of being pushed around," to which a negotiator can respond, "Feel pushed, huh?" Mirroring can be especially helpful in the early stages of a crisis, as negotiators attempt to establish a nonconfrontational presence, gain initial intelligence and build rapport.

WITH BEST WISHES

DR WILFRED MONTEIRO