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5 Good Negotiation Technique

Thee underued negotiation technique can help profeional negotiator increae their argaining
power
Y KATI HONK — ON FRUARY 7TH, 2019 / NGOTIATION KILL

You’ve matered the aic of good negotiation technique: ou prepare

thoroughl, take time to uild rapport, make the firt offer when ou have a
trong ene of the argaining range, and earch for wie tradeoff acro
iue to create value. Now, it’ time to aor five leer-known ut
imilarl effective negotiation topic and technique that can enefit all
profeional negotiator:

1. Reframe anxiet a excitement. The preparation tage of negotiation often

come with unpleaant ide effect, uch a weat palm, a racing heart,
and eemingl overwhelming anxiet. It’ common even for profeional negotiator to feel nervou, ut thi tate of
mind can lead u to make cotl deciion, according to Harvard uine chool profeor Alion Wood rook. We
tend to elieve the et negotiation technique to deal with our anxiet i to calm down, ut that can e eaier aid than
done. Tr reframing the tate of high phiological aroual aociated with anxiet a excitement, recommend rook.
Thi utle reframing tactic, which treat our aroual a a plu rather than a minu, actuall increae authentic feeling
of excitement—and improve uequent performance in negotiation, rook ha found in her reearch.

2. Anchor the dicuion with a draft agreement. Due to a widepread deciion-making heuritic known a the anchoring
ia, firt documented  pchologit Amo Tverk and Daniel Kahneman, the peron who make the firt offer in a
negotiation i likel to wa the dicuion in her favor. Firt offer tend to erve a powerful anchor, even for
experienced profeional negotiator. To make an even igger impact, ou might tr opening utantive negotiation
with a draft agreement, or tandard-form contract, prepared with our legal counel and an relevant deciion maker
from our team. Though uch draft aren’t alwa appropriate, the can increae our influence over the negotiation,
according to Tuft Univerit profeor Jewald alacue. A tandard-form contract not onl ue the anchoring ia to
our advantage ut could ave oth ide time and mone, making thi one of the negotiation technique that could reall
e worth tring.

3. Draw on the power of ilence. In negotiation, a in an dicuion, we tend to ruh in to fill an uncomfortale ilence
that arie with peruaion technique and counter-argument. That can e a mitake, according to Harvard uine
chool and Harvard Law chool profeor Guhan uramanian. After our counterpart peak, allowing a few moment
of ilence to ettle can give ou time to full aor what he jut aid. “ilence give ou the ailit to dampen our
intinct for elf-advocac and amplif our intinct to liten,” according to uramanian. ilence can alo help ou
defue our own tendenc toward the anchoring ia. If a counterpart drop an outrageou anchor, “our tunned ilence
will far more effectivel defue the anchor than heap of proteting would,” a uramanian.

4. Ak for advice. Profeional negotiator often aume that aking the other part for advice will conve weakne,
inexperience, or oth. ut in fact, in one recent tud, participant rated partner who aked them for advice to e more
competent than partner who didn’t ak for advice, rook, Wharton chool profeor Maurice chweitzer, and Harvard
uine chool profeor Franceca Gino found. When we ak for advice, we flatter the advier and oot her elf-
confidence, the reearcher dicovered. o, conider taking opportunitie to ak our counterpart for advice when ou
trul need it. Not onl are ou likel to enefit from the advice, ut ou ma trengthen the relationhip in the proce.

5. Put a fair offer to the tet with final-offer aritration. When negotiating to end a dipute under the hadow of a lawuit,
ou might find ourelf frutrated  a counterpart’ eeming inailit to make or entertain reaonale, good-faith offer.
How can ou come to a ettlement that’ fair to oth ide in uch an adverarial negotiation? One promiing ut
underued tool i final-offer aritration (FOA), alo known a aeall aritration, according to Harvard uine chool
profeor Max H. azerman. In FOA, each part umit it et and final offer to an aritrator, who mut elect either of
the two offer and not an other value. Partie ma not appeal the aritrator’ deciion. When partie agree to ue FOA,
their offer tpicall ecome reaonale, a the now have an incentive to impre the aritrator with their
reaonalene. In Major League aeall, where FOA i availale, uncertaint aout what an aritrator might decide
uuall motivate plaer and team to come to agreement in contract dipute. The next time ou are in a dipute with
omeone ou elieve i eing unreaonale, conider uggeting FOA, recommend azerman. If he ha een luffing,
he likel will repond to our uggetion with a much more reaonale offer. If he take ou up on our offer, ou hould
have confidence in our ailit to impre the aritrator with our reaonalene.

What do ou think aout thee negotiation technique? We would love to hear from ou in the comment.

Related Pot
Teaching Kid How to Negotiate World Peace
xpanding the Pie: Integrative veru Ditriutive argaining Negotiation trategie
What I Ditriutive Negotiation?
Undertanding Different Negotiation tle
What i Negotiation?

 Comment

6 Repone to “5 Good Negotiation Technique”

VALNTIN P. DCMR 15, 2017

All are ver good and eail applied technique. Thank ou!
Aking for advice could e o unexpected for the opponent to lock him/her (What i ehind thi?). o, ou need to e
careful/genuine.

RPLY

VA G. DCMR 15, 2017

I appreciated the anchoring advice and would like to hear more on thi topic. TW, our Negotiation coure wa excellent
and I am recommending it to friend.

RPLY

AHLY A. DCMR 18, 2017

I agree with Valentin, aking for advice i oth ueful and trategic!

RPLY

ARI G. NOVMR 13, 2018

I think the part that ugget to reort to FOA i confident that the aritrator will likel chooe hi offer. ither that or he
could e luffing o that the other part would rather make a reaonale offer intead of reorting to FOA.

RPLY

RJI FRUARY 7, 2019

“aeall aritration” — if it’ inding, and a eparate aritrator hear no evidence, wh would anone accept/umit to
it? If it’ non-inding wh would anone pend more mone and time on it?

If the partie wanted neutral evaluation to egin, there are option for that.
On the other hand, if the mediator ecome the aritrator in a inding proce, doen’t that compromie the
confidentialit and neutralit of the prior mediation? A a mediator, I hope that all ide will full dicloe to me their
poition and their cae anale, and I encourage them all to do o.

Who would offer thi information to an aritrator?, I wouldn’t, a either attorne or a part, (and although,in m role a an
aritrator, I wih everone would, it’ not required and it can’t e ordered).

Pleae, help me etter undertand the ethic and effectivene of “aeall aritration,” within the framework of
mediation.

RPLY

GUILHRM A. FRUARY 8, 2019

Drawing the power of ilence i a ver elegant technique. I met experienced negotiator who ue ilence in a ver
intelligent wa, either to cool the mood or to puh the anxiet to it counterpart at the tale.

RPLY

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