Negotiation is an art. Expert negotiators develop an eye for scouting opportunities in bleak situations and swiftly turn around unfavorable terms to their will. The path to reach such a stage is through many trials, where you lose, win, or break even many times. A key is being able to create win-win situations in your negotiations.
You may be a candidate looking to score a higher package as an employee or an already salaried employee looking for a raise, a business person striving for greater benefits, or just a person looking to create a harmonious rhythm in your relationship, learning to negotiate effectively will help you exceedingly well. Since negotiations are waiting for you at every nook and corner in life that may be life-nudging or life-altering, we have carefully handpicked a few essential negotiation tactics for creating win-win situations:
Understanding and working towards mutual benefit is at the heart of creating win-win situations in your negotiations. Remember and expect that the opposite party has been negotiating as long as you, if not even longer, and they can detect shady behavior or ulterior motives just like you can. Negotiation is a two-way street. Cherish the 3 C's: consideration, cooperation, and compromise. This will help you consider the wants of the other party, cooperate with them in how you can best accommodate them, and finally be ready to compromise on something to come to a mutually beneficial point of agreement. Think about it from their perspective, see it from their angle and you can learn to create win-win situations in your negotiations.
As a negotiator, always talk value before numbers. This increases your perceived value and reshifts the focus to what you are giving versus what you are asking for.
For example, your client says, "the charges for your services are too high, I'm getting a much better price in the market from one of your competitors." Here, your response should be along the lines of "I bet it is. But here's the thing: I firmly believe that a 'better price' is not independent of better value. I stand behind my 7 years of industry experience and the hard-earned testimonials of my reputed clients as a fair justification for my asking price."
Negotiating is all about knowing what you want and what you can live without. The back-and-forth dance between you and the opposite party is to ideally understand what you both can gain, what you both can lose, and what you both can settle on. The best win-win situations in your negotiations are the ones where you walk away feeling good about getting what you wanted and feeling content with the compromises you had to make. This can only happen if you take the time and understand your most desired needs before you negotiate.
Facts combat negotiation fires and fault finders. Facts are the evidence to your value proposition and they are your piece of leverage to weigh unfavorable situations to balance. If you encounter pushback like, I don't think this partnership deal is fair to me, or I think you are charging me too much, it is the perfect opportunity to use facts as the anchor to guide them through your thought process and the derived conclusion in question, instead of solely disagreeing.
Negotiations are full of disagreements that give rise to conflict. These conflicts can raise intense emotions and make situations heated. It is essential to distinguish the person you are negotiating with as an entity separate from the conflicted situation. This helps you maintain your composure and prevents you from seeing the other party as the 'opponent.' The inevitable conflicts are a matter of different opinions and it should be treated with a level of mutual respect, decency, and objectivity.
Situations of mutual benefit, (i.e. Win-win situations in your negotiations) are never a fluke, they are a product of willingly putting yourself in the shoes of the other party and working your way towards a mutual goal. If you want to succeed and grow, learn to negotiate, it is a skill that never stops paying in life.
