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Experience has shown that some of the typical approaches in negotiation are very smart… or just the opposite. Here are ten of the most common, starting with the smart ones.

Start Positively with Compliments

Smart negotiators realise that the atmosphere they create will impact in the other’s perception and behaviour. Make it clear that your intention is to find the best deal for both of you. Rather than positioning each other as competitors, see each other as partners working together to solve your mutual problem. Just like a mountaineer needs a partner to reach the highest peak, you need each other to achieve the best mutually beneficial agreement.

If you can include an appropriate compliment, it will not only fast-track your rapport-building, it will also introduce positive labelling. It has also been shown that by positively labelling someone, you can influence them to act more that way. So, if, for example, you were to compliment them on being so understanding, it might just cause them to try to be more understanding!

Make Them Aware of Your Preparation

Your preparation is often the most important work you do in a negotiation. Thorough preparation gives you the foundation to make your offer with confidence and the leverage to unsettle the other side.

If you know something that they don’t know you know, use it early. Some negotiators will hold back this information, saving it as ‘ammunition’ to use if the other party becomes difficult. You will get better results if you reveal this information early – before offers are put on the table. Doing this surprises the other side, causing them to doubt the quality of their preparation. If I can compromise your confidence in your preparation, I create doubt about the validity of your offer which was based on that preparation.

Ask Their Opinion Before Making Your Offer

Most negotiators can only ascertain the other side’s reaction to their offer after they have put it on the table. Once an offer is made, it cannot be retracted. Smart negotiators do all they can to test the other’s opinion before any offer is tabled. They create a conversation where neither side makes any commitments, they just share ideas and reactions to better understand each other’s interests and priorities. They might use a line like, “I’m not looking at any commitments yet, but how would you feel if we put this with this in a package that includes… “

Once either side puts an offer on the table bargaining starts – and information sharing stops. So, you need to get as much information as possible before you start bargaining.

Refer to the Authority and Influence of Others

It’s unrealistic to expect anyone in a negotiation to accept the other party’s figures, so you need to find an authoritative source you can both agree on.

If I try to change your thinking in a negotiation by confronting your ideas, it is likely you will just become more entrenched in your ideas as you argue against me. It has been shown that I can influence your thinking by pointing to the actions of others whom you see as similar to you. Identifying any such reference points is part of a smart negotiator’s preparation.

Tie-Together a Package with the Maximum Perceived Value

It is virtually impossible to negotiate a win-win outcome over a single issue. Use your preparation and your non-committal discussions with them at the opening of the negotiation to create an integrated package with the maximum perceived value; remembering that something that has high perceived value to them might actually cost you very little.

Conversely, there are many stupid negotiation behaviours.

Start Aggressively with Criticism

Some negotiators start out with the thought, “I’m going to show them what a tough negotiator I am.” Research has proven that when I perceive you as being competitive, I become more competitive, I am less likely to share information with you and I become less flexible with my offer(s). Not a smart way to start!

Table Your Offer Early

Moving too quickly into bargaining will limit the chances of finding the maximum possible value for a deal.

Undermine Their Offer and/or Authority

It’s okay to question their offer, but putting it or them down will only result in a negative response.

Play Your Cards Close to Your Chest

This is negotiation – not poker! Failure to share information (that could have in no way compromised either position) is one of the main reasons for poor agreements.

Irritate Them – To Get Them to Do or Say Something They’ll Regret

Only works with very inexperienced negotiators.

Demand Answers After You’ve Backed Them into a Corner

Okay, so you’ve out-negotiated them with you clever ‘traps’. Now you have someone who resents you and you have to work with them to make this deal generate value.

When negotiating, you have choices… choose the smart ones!

As you may know, negotiating isn’t for everyone. Many in business realize this fact but others don’t. Those of us with a technical or artistic background may not make the best negotiators. This is unfortunate for those in the early part of their careers. It is during this time when you are your own best advocate so you will have to do your own negotiating. You don’t have much experience and likely no formal training. Doubtless, your counterpart has much of both.

When you enter into a negotiating session, take a moment to evaluate the situation. Who is your counterpart? Much older and more successful than you? If so, you really should be prepared before your negotiating session. If you aren’t ready, often the best tactic is to defer. This is especially true if you are caught off guard.

Say your boss calls you into his office and tells you to close the door. “Let’s discuss your salary review now”, he says. You thought that your annual review would be next month so you didn’t really do any planning for this conversation. What do you do? You certainly want to hear what your boss has to say. Let him go first. Evaluate why he wants to discuss the matter early. Hopefully he just wants to reward you early because you are such a valued employee. Maybe he wants you to keep working hard now. Maybe there isn’t any money for raises and the policy has just been given to your boss. Find out. By carefully listening, you may get some great information. Not just about your current salary, but the company in general.

You may be put on the spot in an unplanned negotiation. “What do you think would be fair at a difficult economic time like this?”, you may be asked. How can you answer? Fair might be no raise at all. Maybe a pay cut. Maybe free overtime. There are possibly lots of options. The real answer is that the fair option now is the same as it always is – what’s in it for you? That’s it.

When you really aren’t prepared to negotiate and you get put on the spot, you need to defer the session. Ask yourself what’s in it for you. Maybe you just got offered improvements that work. If so, count yourself lucky and do the deal. If you didn’t, you need to stop the session and start again when you are ready. “Well”, you can say, “I thought we would discuss my salary increase next month”. This is a strong response. He may have just said that there is no money, times are bad, people are being let go, they have to buy water with only one hydrogen atom now, whatever. “I would like to review what you said and look at my options”. This would be a good time to reschedule. “Can we finish this tomorrow morning?” You need time to prepare but you want to get something finished.

With your position stated, you think you deserve a raise and you want to finish the negotiation the next day, (or as soon as possible), you can maintain a strong position. Now you can wait and listen, again, to what the response is. This gives you a chance to evaluate your counterpart again. If he persists, trying to get you to commit to a number, ask yourself why. Ask yourself, again, what’s in it for you. At this point, it likely isn’t good. Get out.

By deferring a surprise negotiating session to a time when you are better prepared, you can often be much more comfortable with the process. If you are comfortable, you will have a better negotiating experience. Each time you go through the process, the experience helps you get ready for the next one. Each negotiating session will be similar, in some respects to others that you have had. Listening to your counterpart and deferring to a better time will help you to increase “what’s in it for you”, and that is always the point to negotiating.

Many speakers, even mature, well-educated people come on to the dais but fail to make an interesting presentation of their ideas on the given topic. Such poor speakers bore the audience so much that the audience yawns and struggles to stay awake. Quite sadly in some presentations the audience cannot recall at the end of a lecture what they have learned though the speaker has delivered copious amounts of information and given its analysis. Usually the purpose of a presentation is either to inform or convince or entertain, but an unskilled, ill-informed speaker can achieve none of these. An analysis of the factors responsible for the failure of a presentation of a hypothetical speaker is made in the following paragraphs. It is needless to say that the rectification of those factors leads to success.

Assertion of the speaker’s authority and a proper body language: Some speakers don’t give the impression that they are the right people to talk on the given topic, either by their nervous behavior or their failure to inform the audience of their credentials on the topic. Quite strangely, some speakers all through their talk either rivet their attention on a single listener or don’t look at the audience at all, giving their full attention to the notes they have brought. Some stare absently at the objects or look around the room for no reason or play nervously with objects like pen or note book which not only annoys the audience but elicits their distrust also.

Voice Modulation: Another important reason for the failure of a speech is a voice which is terribly monotonous, lacking in the modulations and reflects neither the feelings attached to each piece of information nor the inferences made from such information. (Fast 108) Such presentations make it difficult for the audience to understand; similarly in some presentations, the voice of the speaker and his point are mutually contradictory. A clear, modulating voice is a tool to make meaning clearer, but an improper use of it leads to confusion and irritation. (Jehan 105)

Introduction to the given topic: The audience has to be walked into a context. Listeners who have taken the pains to come to a venue are definitely interested in a speech. But the first and foremost factor defining the success of a lecture is the way the topic is introduced: its importance has to be explained, its relevance to the life or career of each member of the audience has to be properly connected, and the basic concepts related to the topic have to be explained. Many speakers are not aware of this essential requirement of a lecture and hence focus more on the quantity of information – a lot of statistics, numerous references and scores of examples- while failing to lay a foundation for the audience to understand those reams of information.

Fewer Perspectives rather than many: Many speakers deliver their speech with a false notion that many perspectives and many ideas make it a success. But the listeners can neither remember nor refer to all the contents of speech some time later like one does with the written material; meaning of a speech has to made on the spot; they can not postpone it just because there is a lot of information; A speech where its meaning is postponed is definitely the one whose purpose is ruined. The hallmark of a good speech is that the audience understands it on the spot as they listen. For this to happen, the entire speech no matter how big it is should center on very few principal ideas-three or four. Too many ideas leave the audience wondering where they are being led.

Preparation: A speaker who is comfortable in his presentation and having adequate control over what he is going to talk about can deliver his message effectively. That he is comfortable in his job is reflected in his voice, which is well-modulated and exactly tuned to the level of the audience – neither loud nor low-and in an appropriate facial expression. A ‘comfortable’ speaker makes the audience comfortable. A ‘comfortable’ audience receives the message correctly and nothing can stop them from rating the lecture highly. A comfortable audience of the lecture forgets all of their other concerns and is lost in the lecture only. At the end, it carries home a pleasant experience as well as an insightful learning. But the key to such a level of success is preparation. A presentation can be successful only as much as its preparation is. During preparation, a speaker chooses everything that he has to deliver: information, experiences, stories, examples, visual aids, order of points, jokes, and even words too!

To sum up, many experienced, educated people are poor speakers; the success of a speech depends primarily on the preparation, introduction, voice, and body language. It is a false notion that a successful speech requires many perspectives and several ideas; three or four principal ideas are enough.

Works Cited

Fast, Julius. Body Language, New York: Pocket Books, 1970.

Jehan, Gorge W. Persuasive Speaking. Surrey,U.K: Elliot Right Way Books Limited, 1972.