Negotiation Skills

Having a solid grasp of how to strike an agreement, how to convince someone that your deal is the best one ever, and how to compromise well are all mandatory skills to have in business and in your personal life.

These skills are related to negotiation. They are the building blocks on which barter and trade are built, and they generally help you survive in some tough situations too.

Consider for example how much you’re negotiating already. You’re practising negotiation when you’re discussing your salary with a prospective employer, when you’re asking for a raise, and when you’re selling something to someone.

Now, think about what makes negotiation what it is. It’s certainly not just one component but rather several.

In this article, we take a look at the most valuable negotiation skills and styles you need to have to succeed in your next deal. Let’s begin.

1. BATNA:

BATNA stands for “Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement”. Why does this matter? Simply put, a negotiation RARELY goes the way you imagine it will.

That’s why thinking about alternatives right from the get-go is a vital skill that will help you reach favourable outcomes in your negotiations.

Always remember that negotiation is a two-way street. You and the other person are looking to get the best deal out of something.

Your BATNA will help you determine how to overcome an impasse in your deals because they happen all the time.

The outcome you want to reach through BATNA is one where you and the other person are satisfied with your agreement.

2. Distributive Bargaining:

As part of understanding the different styles of negotiation, anyone looking to up their game when striking deals should learn about distributive bargaining.

This bargaining style is one of the most aggressive approaches out there. Your aim here is to get the best deal possible, often at the expense of the other party’s best interests.

The way it works is that you figure out how to gain as much as you can while losing as little as possible. Distributive bargaining is a zero-sum strategy. That is to say, the targeted resources, assets, or money are limited.

When following this strategy, adjusting according to what your competitor wants is not advised. That’s because you’ll stand to lose more than you gain if you do.

3. Collaborative Negotiation:

As the name implies, you’re looking to approach a negotiation with the best interests of everyone in mind. While that’s not realistic often, it still leads to favourable outcomes for everyone if the right circumstances allow it.

Concessions are not welcome here. What you’re looking for is a win-win situation. This can happen when you and the other party agree on the best ways to solve your common problems.

Diplomacy, listening, and communication are the cornerstones of effective collaborative negotiation.

4. Rapport Building:

Negotiations are a human endeavour, and humans communicate better when they feel everything is fun and light-hearted.

While negotiations happen in formal contexts, that doesn’t mean you can’t build some kind of relationship with the other side. Try throwing in a joke when appropriate, take a few minutes to discuss what the other person is like if the occasion allows it, and do your best to maintain cordiality.

It’s well-proven that negotiations are reached much more quickly when people are friendly towards each other, even if some of the more aggressive negotiation approaches are used.

5. Contingency Planning:

It’s often difficult and impractical to try and imagine how a negotiation will play out over a period of time, especially if it’s a year-long contract of some kind.

That’s why contingency planning is important. This means you add in a contingent contract or clause that gives everyone an idea of what will happen later if the terms of the contract go sideways.

For example, a contingent contract can be used to reward a freelancer for finishing work earlier than the planned deadline. Likewise, it can be used as a way to stop further dealings if the freelancer fails to meet even one deadline.

6. Goal-setting:

Setting goals all through the lifespan of a contract helps keep things in perspective. These goals can take the form of deadlines, milestones, or even a renegotiation stage.

Goal-setting gives everyone an extra incentive to stay committed to the terms of the contract. Moreover, it allows wiggle room for terminating a contract if something goes south or if an unforeseen circumstance happens.

7. MESO:

This one stands for “Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers.” It’s an essential negotiation skill that calls for having multiple offers on hand when discussing an agreement.

The proposals offered should all have unique value for the other party. Otherwise, it’ll look more like a concession than an actual attempt at reaching a suitable outcome for everyone.

For example, consider a college student looking to start an internship at your company. You understand they have no job experience yet, but there’s potential. You’ve seen something about them and liked it.

The college student wants his internship to be paid, and he wants to become an employee if everything goes well.

However, you still believe he’s not ready, so you make him multiple offers at the same time.

• The first one is a 3-month paid internship at your company, with future employment opportunities on the table.
• The second one is a 3-month unpaid internship, but with the ability to immediately work at your company after it ends if his performance is great.
• The third is a 3-month paid internship that can be turned into a contract if the student maintains exceptional performance.

This way, you ensure the student is getting equal value from each offer, and you, the employer, are tapping into young talent that can elevate your business.

8. Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional intelligence plays a big part in negotiations. It’s your ability to gauge how the other party is feeling, what their motivation is, and how to relate to them or expose their weaknesses.

It’s a crucial skill that sets the tone for further deals down the line. It also applies to you, the one doing the negotiating, as it helps in maintaining composure and not becoming reactive.

After all, many negotiations are actually power plays in disguise, and the one who cares the least always holds the most power.

At the same time, emotional intelligence can help you reach a common ground faster through empathy and building rapport.

Needless to say, all of the skills discussed so far require a certain baseline of emotional intelligence to be effective. Otherwise, you end up losing in many situations where it seemed easy to seal the deal.

In Conclusion:

As it’s clear, negotiation is a world of its own. Negotiation theory exists for a reason. That’s because humans are complex. There are so many ways a deal can happen and end that it might take someone several years before they begin nailing down the basics.

This article has gone over some of the key skills that go into the process of negotiation. Some of them you might have never heard of before, and others you’ll recognise right away.

Either way, you need to put in the time and study the different negotiation approaches, along with working on the requisite soft skills, in order to become a great negotiator.

The good news is it’s a lifetime skill that will serve you well in both your professional and personal life, so don’t be lazy about improving it.