Negotiating

The shared impact of deadlines

April 11, 2011
Q. “Due to the nature of my business, I often find myself negotiating under tight deadlines. I feel this puts me at a disadvantage, even before we begin to bargain! In some of my past negotiations, I ended up conceding more than I wanted and faster than I desired. Given that I commonly do not have any flexibility around my deadlines, do you have any advice on how to better hide this weakness?”

A failure to communicate

February 16, 2011
Q. “I’ve just finished reading No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller by Harry Markopolos, the whistle-blower in the Bernard Madoff scandal. Why do you think Markopolos was so ineffective at persuading the SEC that Madoff was a fraud? What does this story tell us about how to be persuasive in negotiation?”

When to ‘kick it upstairs’

December 13, 2010
Q. “I am about to begin a negotiation whose subject matter is squarely within my area of responsibility. However, the dollar amounts at stake are so large that I’m tempted to kick it upstairs to my boss, or at least involve my boss directly in the negotiation. What are the pros and cons of doing so?”

Making multiple offers can pay off

November 15, 2010

Effective negotiators seek opportunities to create value. By making tradeoffs across issues, parties can obtain greater value on the issues that are most important to them. But how can you be sure you’re making the right offer?

Are you focused on what’s relevant?

November 9, 2010
When weighing job offers, many students base their decision on vivid, high-prestige qualities such as salary or firm reputation, overlooking factors more relevant to their ability to thrive in the new position. These job-seekers, like all negotiators, are susceptible to “vividness bias.” How can you keep vividness from working against you? Here are a few ways to focus your attention in the right direction:

Lesson in diplomacy

September 13, 2010
John Street learned something about leadership one day in 1981, when he was a member of the Philadelphia City Council. When the council president barred his bill aimed at helping the city’s financially troubled school district, Street seized the stenotype machine, setting off a melee that made national news. He said he learned a lesson that day about diplomacy:

Ask 12 questions before negotiating

September 13, 2010
Master negotiator Herb Cohen gives us questions you want to have answered before going into any negotiation:

When you’re facing a tough negotiator

July 9, 2010
Suppose you’re about to face off with an “old school” negotiator whose reputation for hard bargaining precedes him. There are steps you can take to transform a potential zero-sum competition of wills into an interaction that is aligned toward problem solving—even when facing the hardest bargainer.

6 tips from a master negotiator

June 14, 2010

Allan Stark loves to haggle. In his world, everybody can make out better on every deal. He’s made a second career by offering his negotiating skills on the web. His pitch: He’ll do even better on the very best deal you can make and then split the savings. Stark offers these tips:

Leadership Tips: Vol. 610

May 17, 2010
Pull audience members’ attention away from their BlackBerrys by asking a lot of questions, says Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group … How did Apple sell more than $150 million worth of iPads on the product’s launch day? It spent 25 years earning the privilege of delivering personal and relevant messages to their customers, says blogger and author Seth Godin …