Secrets of being a successful negotiator - Be nice


You negotiate every day, whether it's making decisions with your spouse, haggling over the price of a sales item or booking a hotel. Our clients dislike the process because they feel they need to manipulate others to get what they want.

Over the course of PPS's evolution, we have helped clients find good solutions to virtually every kind of problem one might face, including legal problems, business problems, and even personal problems. We remained nice and goal oriented throughout the process and still reached successful conclusions. One should never burn bridges nor sacrifices a goal for personal gain. In fact, being nice helps us achieve more of our goals and build relationships with less stress and greater returns.

PPS's "win/win" strategy
It's common to think of negotiation as a onetime, "zero-sum event" -- with the approch being I win, you lose. But most "deals" in your professional and personal lives are really daily, monthly or yearly pieces of larger, ongoing deals. Many of PPS's clients originally came to ask about a problem that was occurring annually. These include everything from legal issues, purchases to vacations plans to in-law issues and lots of the things in between.

 Better: Instead of trying to dominate the other person in a negotiation, make the best deal you can for yourself by helping him/her get what they want.

Example: You want to buy a particular item in a store. You spending limit is $150, but the price the store wants is $200 and they refuse to accept less than $200. At this point, many buyers will walk out, threatening to never shop there again... cave in and spend the extra money... or
buy a different brand that they don't like as much. Instead, you notice a floor model of the item on display. You offer the store $125 for the floor model, but to protect yourself, you ask him to give you the $99, three-year extended warranty for just $25. He agrees.

Result: You walk away with the particular item you wanted at your price without being a pushover. And, the deal is acceptable to the store because you helped it get what he wanted -- a sale.

Creating a win/win negotiation

Before the negotiation...

Identify what you really want. Example: You decide to sell your house and relocate. You spend months in fruitless negotiations with buyers because you refuse to budge on your price, which is the same amount which your neighbor down the street sold his house recently.

Better: Realize that what you really want is to make enough money to meet your financial goals