If you’re in business, then you know that negotiation is a skill that is absolutely essential to success. After all, negotiation is how you make deals with other businesses, reach agreements with customers and vendors, and resolve conflicts within your own organization. Unfortunately, negotiation is also a skill that many people are not very good at. In fact, research has shown that most people are actually pretty bad at it.
The good news, however, is that negotiation skills can be learned. And if you want to give your business a competitive edge, then learning how to negotiate effectively is something that you should definitely consider doing. Here are a few tips by Ian Mausner to help you get started.
How to Improve Your Negotiation Skills
Understand Your Goals
Ian Mausner believes that the first step in any negotiation is to understand what your goals are. What do you want to achieve? What is your bottom line? Once you know what you want, you can start thinking about how to best achieve it. Without a fixed goal, it will be very difficult to negotiate effectively.
Do Your Homework
Before entering into any negotiation, it’s important that you do your homework. This means gathering information about the other party, their interests, and their objectives. The more you know, the better positioned you’ll be to make favorable deals. You should do your research about the other party’s business, their industry, and their past negotiating history.
Be Prepared to Compromise
In any negotiation, there will likely be some areas where you’ll need to compromise in order to reach an agreement. It’s important to be prepared for this ahead of time and to have a clear idea of what your bottom line is. Otherwise, you may find yourself making concessions that you later regret.
Be Assertive, But Not Aggressive
According to Ian Mausner, it’s important to be assertive in your negotiation, but you don’t want to come across as being too aggressive. Remember, the goal is to reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial for both parties. If you’re too aggressive, you may end up scaring the other party away or making them less likely to want to work with you in the future.
Be Willing to Walk Away
If the other party isn’t willing to meet your needs, then it might be best to just walk away from the negotiation. This doesn’t mean that you should give up easily, but sometimes it’s better to just walk away from a bad deal than to make concessions that you’ll later regret.
Have a BATNA Already at Hand
BATNA stands for Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. In other words, it’s your Plan B. If the negotiation doesn’t go the way you want it to, what will you do? Having a BATNA gives you more power in the negotiation because it means that you’re not desperate to make a deal.
The Conclusion
Learning how to negotiate effectively is an important skill for any business owner. By following these tips that Ian Mausner has given, you can improve your negotiation skills and give yourself a competitive edge. Negotiation is a skill that takes practice, so keep these tips in mind the next time you’re in a business negotiation.