Negotiate Effectively
  
by Andrew Bryant

Your life is full of negotiations - like it or not you come into conflict with others: work colleagues, clients, bosses, family members, partners, sales people and the 'establishment'.

According to the dictionary -"negotiation is a discussion intended to produce an agreement" - more simply it's about gaining the favour of people from whom we want things. In this month's newsletter I will share a few keys to being an excellent negotiator.

Firstly, build trust. Where there is no trust there will be no effective negotiation - just look at any area of conflict in the world where no settlement is imminent - for example the Palestinians and the Israelis and now the Americans and the Iraqi rebels. Ideally the best time to build trust is before the 'official' negotiation begins. Trust is built by being friendly, relaxed, honest and above all consistent. If you suddenly change your communication style and become overly friendly the other party will suspect something - just like parents when a child suddenly starts being 'extra nice'.

With trust established you can obtain information. Information is everything in negotiation, especially information about the other parties needs. Most negotiations centre on money, when in fact money may not be the specific need. Why is this? Because people are unique with differing needs but money is quantifiable - it's a way of keeping score. Find the real needs of the other party and you can go for Win/Win and often bypass a financial stalemate. To gain quality information it is essential to shift your perception to see things from their point of view - I described how to do this effectively in the May 2004 Newsletter.

Always negotiate the problem not the person. Most people see negotiation as a battle of wills with two sides battling it out for overall supremacy. The expert negotiator creates a collaboration, which focuses both parties' energies on the problem. The solution to the problem can usually be described as getting everybody's needs met.

Earlier this year my business team was approached by a conference organiser wanting me to speak at a conference on the topic of business networking. Happy to take the enquiry my business manager checked my availability, asked about outcomes the organiser wanted and then quoted my fee. The organiser then confessed that they had already spent their budget, consequently they wanted me to speak for free, "BUT", they waxed lyrically, "there will be lots of networking opportunities".