Eight Steps To Success In Negotiating - importance of business negotiating

Nation's Business, April, 1999 by Janine S. Pouliot

"Just don't get into it," he says. "Don't cave in to the other person. Refuse to fight" on their level.

Jot down what the other party is saying. That will often reveal clues about what's really bothering the other party besides the issues on the table.

"A good tactic is to increase the number of variables over which you're negotiating," Lerner adds. For example, if both parties are hot under the collar over price, try focusing on the services that accompany that price.

"Maybe you can stage deliveries over time rather than insisting that the other party take all the product at one time," says Lerner. "Or perhaps you can provide extra training--not just about your product but about the industry itself. These things have a value attached to them. Spread out your range of negotiable items."

7. If there's a stalemate, find the underlying cause.

"Stalemates usually develop over small things, not the large matters," says Michael Hoesly, founder and principal of Hoesly and Co. in Madison, an intermediary and adviser to companies seeking strategic partnerships or seeking to buy or sell finns. "Fear and uncertainty are often what kills the deal," he says.

Hoesly cites a case in which an acquisition was about to be clinched. At the last minute, the potential buyer refused to extend medical coverage to the owner's wife, who had a history of cancer. The deal began to unravel.

Says Hoesly: "The complete stalemate really wasn't about the insurance issue. The owner thought the buyer was being cheap toward his sick wife. He was really afraid his wife's cancer would return. The buyer thought the seller was being unreasonable asking for unlimited benefits. But his real fear was that the magnitude of the claim would bankrupt him."

After talking through their anxieties, the two parties reached a negotiated settlement placing a ceiling on the dollar amount of medical claims reimbursed.

8. When a deadlock looks hopeless, buy time.

If there's a deadlock, experts suggest, take a timeout to think about what's been said. Break for coffee or say that you must go back to your office to confer with others. Take the time to review what you've been arguing about and try to approach it another way.

When all else fails, you can bring in an impartial third party to act as a counterbalance. "It helps to have someone present who's not impassioned about the issue," notes Hoesly. A professional mediator agreed upon by both parties often can break a deadlock and get negotiations back on track.

As the experiences and suggestions of business people as well as specialists in the field indicate, negotiators are made, not born.

With careful forethought and perhaps a measure of training, just about anyone can develop the ability to win the best deal possible.