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Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator

Schh, let us tell you a secret.

In negotiations, there’s no such thing as a win-win situation. It is a myth rarely materialized in reality.

You live your life continually negotiating: a better salary, a better price for the car you want, a lower price for the goods you buy, etc. So, if win-wins do not exist, what can you do? Are you supposed to bear the losses?

Of course not. You should just learn a few things that will raise your chances of making deals you will be satisfied with.

So, we present you the basics of those principles, extensively explained in “Secrets of Power Negotiating”.

Who Should Read “Secrets of Power Negotiating”? And Why?

This book is a rare find!

In it, you will find pages full of valuable strategies that you can utilize in business and everyday life.

The insight you will pick up from this book will come in as convenient in daily events, such as purchasing an apartment, as it will when your business’s success is in the picture.

We recommend it to all readers since everybody can benefit from knowing how to negotiate a better deal.

About Roger Dawson

Roger Dawson was born in England, but immigrated to the US in 1962 and became a US citizen ten years later. He was the president of one of California’s most prominent real estate companies. In 1982 he decided to become a full-time speaker and author.

“Secrets of Power Negotiating Summary”

You have heard of win-win situations, right? Most probably, you have not only heard of them, but you also try to live your life by creating win-win.

If that is the case, stop doing it!

Win-wins do not occur often enough to make the concept significant. In many transactions, the odds are that the opposite side wants to get the same things as you. Power Negotiators comprehend this and use It to their advantage.

Furthermore, they utilize each strategy available to win, but at the same time, they respect the other person’s feelings.

However, what makes power negotiators unique?

A power negotiator’s goal is to make the opposite side feel that they have won. At the point when you finish the arrangement, they can state confidently that a relationship has been created or improved on the opposite side.

So, you can become a power negotiator only when you make this your goal.

If it is easier for you, think of power negotiating as playing chess.

You play according to a set of guidelines. The distinction is that, in power negotiating, unlike chess, the opposite side does not know the principles. You can utilize this insight to stay one step ahead and to influence the opposite side to react in a way you can predict. Having this in mind, a talented power negotiator comprehends that the result is more an element of science than of art.

Power negotiating includes risk. Along these lines, strategic moves are like chess moves, and they are called by a similar name: gambits. There are six beginning negotiating gambits, seven middle negotiating gambits and five ending negotiating gambits.

Continue reading to find out which moves and behaviors create this three gambit groups.

Key Lessons from “Secrets of Power Negotiating”:

1.      Beginning Negotiating Gambits
2.      Middle Negotiating Gambits
3.      Ending Negotiating Gambits

Beginning Negotiating Gambits

• • Ask for more than you expect to get, a gambit that gives you more room to negotiate.

• • Never say “yes” to the first offer, a gambit that psychology supports since if you say “yes” right away, the other person will immediately think that they could have done better.

• • Flinch at proposals, or in other words try to look surprised by your negotiating “opponent”’s proposals. If you do not do so, the other party will think that there is a possibility they can make you agree to their offer.

• • Avoid confrontational negotiation, a gambit that tells you not to argue, and instead try using the FFF (feel, felt, found) formula. In this method you acknowledge the other’s feelings, you state that many others felt the same, and then you say that “you have found that…”.

• • The reluctant seller and the reluctant buyer. The reluctant seller says that he would never consider selling something, and the unwilling buyer does the same, in reverse. This is a gambit that can be particularly useful when you are desperate to buy or sell.

• The vise technique uses the expression “You have to do better than that,” followed by silence.

Middle Negotiating Gambits

• • Countering the authority dodge is the most frustrating behavior you can experience you will have during negotiations. It is a tactic used to make you think of better terms, and it gives the other person that claims that they have no authority to make a decision more breathing space.

• • The declining value of services pushes you to negotiate the cost of service at the moment, and do not agree that the other side will make up to you at some later time.

• • Never offer to split the difference.

• • The set-aside gambit is to ask the other side to set an issue you cannot agree on aside while you continue negotiating on remaining items.

• • Change an element of the negotiation can be used to handle a situation when there is no progress, although the talks continue.

• • Go for help. Bringing in a mediator is a gambit you can use when in a deadlock.

• Always ask for a trade-off, is a gambit that applies to all concessions no matter their size.

Ending Negotiating Gambits

• • Good guy / bad guy is one of the most popular negotiating gambits.

• • Nibbling means asking for something more after the negotiators have agreed, most of the time something that some of the parties could not get during negotiations.

• • Tapering concessions, a gambit that tells you not to create a pattern of expectations in your negotiating “opponent”’s mind.

• • Withdrawing an offer

• Positioning for easy acceptance is a gambit useful when you deal with someone who has negotiating experience.

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“Secrets of Power Negotiating” Quotes

Our Critical Review

While you can reduce the secrets and tools presented in this book to common-sense techniques, many of them are just brilliant, and everyone could make a good use of them.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.