Have you ever been offered a job, bought a car or a house? If you have, then you must have had the opportunity to negotiate. Sharpening your negotiation skills will benefit you and your business significantly. I negotiated one of my business from being acquired for 60% of what I was asking, to 100%. I’m here to provide you with 4 negotiation tips including a few important points to keep in mind.
- SET GOALS – First things first, have a set goal in mind. Do you want to get a long term agreement with a new business partner? Do you want to negotiate the payment terms with a preferred long term supplier? Do you want to close a new deal with a new store location? You need to be sure you’ve got your priorities on what’s most important to you always.
- DROP THE ANCHOR – When you set the opening price in a negotiation and whoever is able to do it, gets the upper hand. That’s ANCHORING. Are you going to offer a price or let the other party drop their price first? It’s like a dance you’re attending to. Think if it protects your own valued interests in mind, and if it does, you should offer first. If you think that their offer is going to be a good advantage for you, don’t drop the anchor just yet, WAIT & SEE.
- COMPROMISING – What will be beneficial for everyone is when you create solutions with a different party. Ensure that you’re listening to their goals and priorities, then consider them like something you’re trying to put together alongside yours. It’s putting the right pieces together to make it a whole.
- THE BATNA – BATNA means “Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement”. Always bring thing to every negotiation that you will go to. This is your Plan B. Knowing what’s your Plan B is all up to you of course. You should never ever look desperate though with this. To know what your BATNA is, answer “What’s the next best thing to do if we don’t come to an agreement with my Plan A?”
Here are some creative ideas for negotiating: Revenue sharing, trades/barters, Pro bono work with certain credit, partial payment with partial trade.
Here are cases where you could go into negotiation:
- Payment Terms
- Fees or hourly rates
- Service/subscription fees
- Consulting rates
- Office space expenses/rental terms
- Marketing and advertising rates
- Promotional services
Question of the day: What was the latest negotiation that you went into and how’d it go?
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