Daily, everyone comes across many situations where you have to negotiate. Negotiation is something that you cannot avoid. In simple words, negotiation is an argument or discussion that is aimed at reaching an agreement. Everyone negotiates daily with everyone around without even noticing it. For instance, you negotiate with your family members, friends, with your boss, peers, subordinates, neighbors, relatives, business partners, suppliers, dealers, legal contracts, and so on. In a negotiation, you agree with one of the parties having to give up on your point. And this is considered a failed negotiation.
A successful negotiation is when both parties agree on a point where both parties get something out of the negotiation, like a win-win situation. Negotiation is a skill that everyone has to master if they want to lead a successful life, and no one can master this skill by themselves. You have to learn from others’ experiences. Many successful people have written books on negotiation and shared their experiences with others, so they also master negotiation skills. You can find some of the best negotiation books here.
If you want to know the skills and strategies that lead to successful negotiation, stick to this article. This article is all about negotiation and the different skills of successful negotiation.
What is negotiation?
Before going any further, let’s understand what negotiation is. Negotiation is a process where two parties reach a consensus and an agreement where all the parties benefit from the argument. The negotiation is a give-and-take process where all the parties agree with their different interests and preferences.
A successful negotiation is always a win-win situation for all the parties involved.
The Negotiation stages:
A successful negotiation has certain stages, and you have to go through all the stages every time you indulge in a negotiation.
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Prepare:
This stage is critical, and you can call it the foundation of negotiation. People directly jump to the bargaining stage and do not give the due time to the preparation stage and eventually face an unsuccessful negotiation. In the preparation stage, you research what potential and benefits the negotiation has for you. You also understand the interests of other parties and gather the facts.
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Exchange Information:
In this stage, all the parties share their interests and preferences. This stage establishes what you want out of the negotiation. This stage is crucial because all the parties build their rapport and trust in each other.
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Bargaining:
It is the stage where real give and take happens. All the parties reach an agreement where the negotiation gives a fruitful outcome.
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Conclude:
This stage is followed mainly in a business negotiation. After reaching an agreement, the terms and conditions of the negotiation are jolted down to produce a comprehensive summary of the agreement.
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Execute:
Here, the outcome of the negotiation is executed. The execution provides an opportunity for other negotiations, and the cycle of negotiation goes on and on.
Skills and Strategies for Successful Negotiation:
For a successful negotiation, it is necessary to follow all the steps. Still, some skills and strategies will give you an upper hand in the negotiation process over the other parties. Some of the skills and strategies are as follows.
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Be clear about your interests and goals:
An effective negotiator is always clear about what he or she wants out of the negotiation process. What are his interests and goals, where he can compromise, and the terms on which he will never compromise?
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Prepare yourself:
A good negotiator constantly researches the other parties involved in the negotiation before entering into bargaining stage. A successful negotiator finds out about the interests of the other parties, identifies the common goals and interests and areas of agreements, speculates about the negotiation outcome, and is ready for both good and bad results.
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Active Listening:
Negotiation is not an argument for the sake of an argument. So the excellent negotiator always actively listens to the other parties and not just listens to him also pays attention to their body language. A negotiator picks up the communication clues to further strengthen his perspective and debate for his interests.
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Control your Emotions:
A negotiator should always keep emotions under control during all the process because the negotiator gets angry or frustrated during the negotiation; it might lead to negative results.
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Effective communication Skills:
A skilled negotiator should communicate all his terms, interests, and desired outcomes, and if he failed to do so, it would lead to confusion and unfavorable results.
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Decision-Making Skills:
A negotiator must have good decision-making skills because if you cannot decide, then what’s the point of negotiating.
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Good relationship:
A good negotiator gives value to the emotions and respects other people involved in the process. The negotiator keeps patience and tries to maintain a positive atmosphere during negotiation.
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Trust and reliability:
A negotiation process can have positive outcomes only if all the parties involved trust each other.
