Useful Negotiation Strategies

Rule#1 Always Go Into Negotiation With Power.
This means that you have valuable information which that company/individual wants. It also means that they might attempt to de-value your skills or services. They do this by asking very forward questions.

Examples:
Why should we pay you those fees?
Why should we believe you?
If you screw up, do you have insurance?
You don’t have an advanced Ph.D. What makes your opinion valuable?

These questions, while very legitimate can put off many, many otherwise secure and confident people. Just like the Merovingian in Matrix Reloaded, take his advice: Know the ‘WHY’.

Rule#2 They’ll Ask For The Song, A Dance, Candy And Flowers Too!
Don’t fight it. You’re building a relationship whether you like to or not. Do something different. Remove the ‘office setting.’ If the decision maker plays golf, you’d better play golf too. And be good at it while allowing them to save face if they aren’t too good. This is an opportunity to observe your potential client for 3-6 hours. You’ll learn their habits, whether or not they’re proud, vain, cheaters, liars or frauds. You’ll learn their management style – whether they’re laid back and handle pressure well or second guess themselves on decisions. Keep your wits about you and observe. Let things unfold as they may.

Rule#3: Learn To Shut Up
In an effort to ease a situation, lots of talking can occur. Zips your lips and shut up. Let them talk and talk and talk. Then let them sign and sign and sign. If it’s difficult to not interrupt, pinch yourself. How do I know this works? After I lost a $60K front end and a 3.8M back-end, do you know what the decision maker told me? ‘I’ll recommend you to someone else. Just please shut up.’ And so I have.

Take what works for you and discard the rest.