1. Always go for Win-Win
2. Be Flexible
3. Watch for rigidity in your opponent
4. Raise your own aspirations
5. Lower your opponents aspirations
6. Both sides want to reach an agreement
7. Avoid positional bargaining
8. Separate the people from the problem
9. Know your weaknesses and strengths
10. Know their weaknesses and strengths
11. Don’t play too many games
12. Never Lie
13. Listen carefully
14. Have someone to refer back to
15. Information is power
16. Prepare a "no deal alternative"
17. If in doubt, caucus
18. Generally, avoid bluffing
19. Take time to decide
20. Nothing is non negotiable
21. You will not win all the issues
22. When your honesty is questioned...
23. Buyers and sellers are different
24. Be persistent
25. Try the good guy / bad guy routine
26. Understand your opponent’s point of view
27. In a stale mate, try "what ifs"
28. Never tell them what you wouldn’t do
29 Amateurs talk too much
30. Never split the difference
31. Be skeptical
32. Avoid sitting opposite your opponent
33. Trust your instincts
34. Have patience
35. Difficult people don’t get the best deals
36. Once you’ve got an agreement, leave
37. Think big
38. It is easier to sell at a higher price
39. No deal is better than a bad deal
45. Get agreement in principle first
42. Walk away from last minute changes
43. When saying no, don’t explain
44. Pretend the gun to your head isn’t loaded
45. Look for an opportunity to concede
46. Don’t concede to quickly
47. The louder they get....the softer you get
48. Negotiate with the decision maker
49. Watch for the swap
50. Look the part
51. Always be positive
52. Lower your voice when being tough
53. Avoid taking notes if you can
54. Understand Body Language
55. Never threaten but be persuasive
56. Make the pie bigger
57. Prepare properly
58. Start with a ridiculously low (or high) bid
59. Don’t accept his first offer
60. Never give anything away, trade it
61. Your best two letter word is "if"
62. Buyers tricks.. What do you do when:

When your opponent says your product is no good
When your opponent says "That's it!... Take it or leave it"
When your opponent agrees to a price then adds on extras
When your opponent uses the "Bulk Discount" tactic
When your opponent keeps you waiting

INTRODUCTION

We all negotiate every day of our lives.

With our children, wives or husbands.

When buying a house or selling a car.

You may be asked to negotiate at work to resolve a union dispute, or to sell your products. To buy the company stationary or to book a room for the annual conference.

Some of us will be called upon to negotiate the buying or selling of a business and a very few may need the skills to negotiate their way out of a hostage situation or to appease warring nations.

Most will get involved in the annual negotiation at salary review time and some of us find ourselves both as an employee, asking for a larger increase and as an employer, keeping the increases down.

Over the next few pages we will be looking at a variety of negotiating skills, techniques and tricks that you may find useful.

There are two basic types of negotiation style and while they both have some advantages, I would like to dwell briefly on their disadvantages. The negotiation styles are as follows:

Competitive Negotiation

Seller prices high
Buyer offers low
Battle - Agreement

Co-operative Negotiation

Seller lays cards on the table
Buyer lays cards on the table
Compare notes - Agreement

Competitive Negotiation

Disadvantages

Will often lead to conflict.
Will occasionally lead to brinkmanship.
Results depend on the strength of the negotiator, not the merits of the issues.
Not likely to achieve Win-Win.
Will often result in Lose-Lose.
You are never certain if you achieved the results you could have achieved.

Co-operative Negotiation

Disadvantages

Ignores the human need to win.
Can be misunderstood as weakness
Leaves the negotiator open to be taken advantage of.

In an ideal world Co-operative Negotiation would be the best bet. People or groups of people working side by side to solve a problem will find solution faster than using confrontation.

Our world however, is far from ideal and only through Competitive & Co-operative Negotiation can you truly achieve Win-Win.

This book is not designed to be read once and then put aside. If you are involved in negotiation as part of your work then keep this book near to you and refer to it as you go along.

You can not pull it out during a negotiation of course, but it is worth having close none the less. A customer once told me that he keeps a copy of this book in his top pocket when he negotiates with his customers. When he gets stuck he will excuse himself and go to the toilet to check what he should try next. He says the book has saved him on many occasions from settling for less than he could get.

I am not sure I would advise the same approach but it is a valuable tool to have around, even if it is only to compare notes after the negotiation to see what could have been done better.

This book is not designed to be a complete guide to negotiation and the items in it are not in any particular order. You will discover, however that while you will not find all these techniques of use in all your negotiations, some of them will be of value in every negotiation you undertake. I guarantee that this little book will pay for itself many times over in just the first few times you use it and each time you look at it you will see another way in which you can improve your negotiation skills.

Find an idea in the book that you find useful and then apply it to your next negotiation. When it works, use it again to fine tune it to your style then keep practicing it until it is second nature then find a new idea and make that work too. The best way to improve your negotiation skills is to practice, so read through this book then get out there and do it!