Learning effective negotiation skills can serve you well throughout your career, as they are used on a daily basis in a variety of situations: at the workplace or in business, when purchasing anything, or with interpersonal relationships.
In terms of business negotiations, the following tactics can prove to be helpful. At Stitt Feld Handy Group, we also offer exclusive negotiation skills training courses and workshops throughout the year that can further help to develop your skills:
Be confident
As an expert in your field, you have the experience and understanding of what you are selling, to the point where you should demonstrate that confidence in your voice, body language and general comfort.
Even if you are just starting out in your career, practicing your negotiations before the real deal can help with this, along with taking any supplementary training courses and researching your customers well.
Determining what you can do without the other side, your Plan B, in advance of your negotiation, and being willing to go to your Plan B, will help to increase your confidence negotiations with the other side.
Stay professional
It may seem obvious, but being difficult during business negotiations will hinder the process and affect your future relationships with the party. Remember professionalism throughout your meeting; forgetting it happens more often than you might think when negotiations become challenging.
Don’t acquiesce to every demand
The optimal negotiation doesn’t involve you yielding everything to a potential client and acquiescing to every demand, no matter how great they seem.
Although it may win you a few extra customers when negotiations otherwise would fail, it can cost you in the long run by resulting in deals that are far from optimal.
Be ready to walk away
Compromise will only get you so far; if you have a particular price for your product or service and the market data to back it up, be prepared to walk away if needed.
Pay attention to the time
Time will be the enemy of every deal; you need to follow up at specific intervals to ensure that your deal falls through. You also need to be efficient with your meetings and make sure that you are accomplishing specific tasks to close the deal.
The timeframe to close a deal will vary from one industry to another, but you should be very familiar with your industry’s process and stay cognizant of time throughout each step.
Provide the first version of the agreement
It can be worth it in many cases to pay your attorneys to draft the first version of any agreement; although the agreement may be negotiable, it can help you to frame the fundamental structure of the contract.
You can implement every term that you want, and agreements are often minimally changed simply because of the time and effort involved, allowing you to structure what can be close to a perfect deal.
The Stitt Feld Handy Group offers leading negotiation skills training courses to train business and sales professionals with developing their persuasive abilities and getting much more out of their negotiations. Contact Stitt Feld Handy Group today at 1-416-307-0000 to learn more.
To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.
We are a Canadian company that offers professional development programs around the world. The Stitt Feld Handy Group is a division of ADR Chambers, one of the largest providers of dispute resolution services in the world.