Successful negotiations can help boost the bottom line of business regardless of their type of industry. Here are ten negotiation tips for small business owners that we hope will help you negotiate, based on our experience and practice.
- Know Your Objective
Successful negotiators know before they begin negotiating to achieve They also know their bottom line what they completely must have to make the deal work for them. A successful negotiation is a major one that falls between your goal and the bottom line.
- Be open and flexible
An open mind-set you should take into the deal that can making process is flexibility. This means prioritizing your goals and identifying the areas where you’re willing to compromise. Business owners should be very flexible in how they accomplish their goals. It’s great to have goals. But the real power is in your flexibility and how you want to achieve that, keeping in mind the other person’s limits along the way.
- Understand the deal dynamics
Understanding the deal dynamics is key in any negotiation. So be prepared to regulate the following:
Who has the leverage in the negotiation? Who wants the deal more?
What timing constraints is the other side under?
What alternatives does the other side have?
- Keep in mind that time is the enemy of many deals
You have to understand that the extensive a deal takes to get completed, the more likely that something will occur to derail it. So be prompt at responding, get your lawyer to turn documents around quickly, and keep the deal energy moving.
Understand when time is your side and when time could be your real enemy.
- Turn to Your Network’s Experience
Turn to your network to see what encouragements and requests they’ve won over the years, and which have failed. Other business owners in your niche likely have great assistance on how to ask for better payment terms, bulk deals, and other supplier incentives. You can learn from their mistakes.
- Pay Attention
To Perception and Emotion. How the other side recognizes your negotiating positions and tactics. And your emotional responses that will be strongly influenced by their participation and reactions during the negotiation.
- Aim high and expect the greatest outcome
Successful negotiators are optimists. If you expect more, you’ll get more. A proven way of achieving successful results is opening with an extreme position.
People who aim higher do better. Your optimism will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, if you have low prospects, you will probably wind up with a less satisfying outcome.
- Act like a Detective
Anytime you approach negotiation circumstances, you need to know that both parties have their motivations. The more you know about the person on the other side of the person, the more you’ll be able to figure out their motive.
Once you know their motivations, you’ll know how to satisfy them that the deal you’re proposing will help them achieve their goals as well as yours. You need to create a win situation.
- Articulate you’re Interests
The best way to collaboratively find ways to resolve problems and differences that occur in a negotiation is for both parties to know the interests of the other party.
Never presume that the other side comprehends your interests or that you understand their interests.
- Make Strategic Concessions
Negotiation is a good activity and people generally like to win when they compete. That’s why it’s rare for one party to come out of a negotiation with the best deal they must make businesses along the way.
