There are certain life skills that we should all work on to experience their benefits. One key one to take into consideration is negotiation. Having good negotiation skills can help you to benefit in all areas of life.
If you can negotiate well, chances are, you’ll have a more successful career – whether this is because you work in sales and it means you boost your figures, because you work in contracts and it maximizes your successful agreements, or because you work in a completely unrelated field, but it helps you secure a promotion or pay rise. If you can negotiate well, you’re more likely to have successful relationships, as you’ll be able to reach compromise with your partner, friends, family and colleagues without butting heads so easily. It can help you to save money, as you’ll be able to negotiate good financial deals on products and services that you want to enjoy. The list goes on. But as with any life skill, negotiation is going to take learning and practice. Read on for some more information and top tips that will help you with this venture.
What is Negotiation?
Let’s start out by getting to understand what negotiation actually is. Negotiation is a lot like compromise. It is a discussion that takes place between two people, or two parties, about a subject that you might not initially agree on. Both parties may want different outcomes from the discussion. However, rather than causing conflict, negotiation allows you to communicate in a way that resolves the situation in a way that both parties end up happy, or at least find acceptable. Negotiation provides you with an opportunity to present your case and you may find that you’re either able to sway the other party’s views and opinions, that information presented by them sways yours, or that you both choose to meet somewhere in the middle. Of course, this can be ongoing and more complex than a simple and straightforward decision. Negotiation skills are something that you will need to practice on and work on over time to experience success.
Areas to Focus On
To be successful in negotiation, you’re going to have to work on a few key areas. Here are some that you might want to take into consideration and practice.
Foresight and Research
First and foremost, you’re going to have to make sure that you know what you’re bringing to the table and what you want to take away from any negotiation. This will give you the best chances of success. Of course, you need to always be open to the other party’s thoughts and opinions, meaning you may take on board new information that sways your goals. But you should always head in with a clear idea of what you’re looking for and what you will be happy with as an outcome. Doing your research can give you the best chances of fully understanding the situation you’re going into and will help you to make fair proposals that can actually be agreed to.
Common Sense
Common sense is key to negotiations, as there are some situations you can negotiate and some you can’t. For example, you can be the best negotiator in the world, but if you’re trying to negotiate with an employee in a chain store who has no control over the price of the products they’re selling, you’re not going to have any success. If you negotiate with companies who are known to accept haggling, such as car dealers, you are much more likely to experience a degree of success. You can click here for more information on this.
Communication
To be a successful negotiator, you’re going to have to really work on your communication skills. Essential communications on both sides will allow for a smooth discussion that makes each party’s wants and needs clear to the other. You need to know how to express what you want clearly so that the other party can consider your side of the deal. This may take planning on how you will present your argument, but ultimately, you’ll need to be a good speaker to come across as you wish.
Compromise
Deal-making is almost always going to require some level of give and take, so it’s important that you know what you’re willing to compromise on and what you’re not. You won’t experience much success if you head into a deal and are hardheaded about what you want with little wiggle room. You need to ensure that both parties come out of the deal happy, or you’re unlikely to achieve the outcomes that you want.
Consideration
You always need to consider the deal from both sides. Sure, you’ll be driven by your own motivations. But the other party involved will be too. You need to make sure that you’re being fair by considering the offer from the other individual or group’s perspective. If the situation was reversed, would you be happy to accept what you’re putting forward? You need to be fair in all negotiations to form a good reputation and good bonds. Remember that the person you’re dealing with could be a long-term ally, so you need to make sure you’re not taking advantage of them.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is extremely important while striking up negotiations. You need to always consider how the other party may be feeling, as we are highly emotionally driven beings and something that causes the wrong emotion can see your deal fall through or be outright rejected. This means knowing how to approach the subject you’re talking about, knowing how to push for it and knowing when to stop. There may be situations where a situation is non negotiable and it’s much better to leave it on a good note than to keep pushing for something that isn’t going to happen.
There really is a lot to take on board when it comes to negotiations, but hopefully, some of the information above will serve as good starting blocks on this journey.
Thanks for reading and y’all stay dandy.
-Diego
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