Your Insufficiently Developed Commercial Negotiation Skills Capability Could Cause Critical Negotiations To Fail Due To Insufficient Planning

Two people are engrossed in a negotiation - one achieves his/her objective(s) and is happy, whilst the other walks away dissatisfied with the outcome. Does this scenario sound familiar?

Do you often feel dissatisfied with a settlement that you have reached? Have you ever entered into a settlement only to feel regret soon after sealing the deal?

SUCCESS VS FAILURE

What distinguishes success vs failure in business negotiations?

Most of us understand the importance of preparation to deliver positive results and it is therefore interesting to note that most commercial negotiators do not spend enough time preparing for negotiations, often due to poor negotiation training. Professional sports people spend considerably more time preparing for a contest than they spend in competition; should it be any different for business negotiators?

THE EVIDENCE

Business negotiators only spend approximately 1/3 as much time planning for negotiation as they in reality spend in negotiation. If you were a professional sports person, this would mean that you applied only 1/3 as much time training & preparing as you do in competition. The foremost factor to successful business negotiation outcomes is the quality of your planning for the negotiation.

As a matter of negotiation strategy, consider the following key 5 elements of preparation and at the same time you will simultaneously improve your negotiation skills:

1. Understand Yourself

Before we even apply best- and leading practice negotiation, it is imperative that we first understand our own strengths & weaknesses and it is important that we make use of personal profiling tools to underline our areas of preference within the framework of commercial negotiations, which enables us to have a reference point from which to plot our skills development.

2. Vision

What is the ultimate goal behind the negotiation? Is the negotiation about price or is it about the value that can be added? What are the key motivating factors behind your counterparty's position? What mutual ground, if any, exists between your and your counterparty's vision? It is important to understand the drivers or silent motivations behind the positions of all parties to the negotiation and it is only by asking questions that we will discover these interests.

3. Value

What are the key deal objectives being targeted in this negotiation? What are the facts and figures supporting the negotiation environment? What options does each party have, if any? Once again we should try to identify, prioritise & weigh the objectives of all parties to the negotiation and only then are we in a position to highlight those goals that are shared and at the same time deal with those objectives that are likely to cause conflict.

4. Process

Have you spent time thinking about an agenda for your upcoming negotiation? Have you listed all the concessions that you will make & receive? Do you have tools/templates at your disposal to support the efficiency of the negotiation cycle.?

5. Relationship

It is easy to forget that we deal with individuals who have goals & aspirations similar to our own and it is not always just about the contractual terms. The research is clear that people are more likely to deal with those whom they trust & like, than with those with whom they little in common. Try to focus on those interests that you share with your negotiation counterparts, and do not forget to focus on the people.

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