The Best Corporate Negotiation Tactics to Use

Negotiation has always been a key part of human history because of how we humans have been intricately connected to it. This is one of those things that can be found throughout the ages in one form or another. From a vendor and a customer arguing over the price of fruit; to two teams of lawyers arguing about a lawsuit settlement; negotiation has, is and most certainly will remain an integral part of our society.

As expected, something that is so ingrained in our history has gone through its own phase of evolution. And like most things, there’s a wrong way, a right way and a better way of doing things. Similarly, there are multiple negotiation tactics and strategies that have spurred on in the past. Some of these are great, while others are good enough for certain occasions. However, at corporate level, negotiation training is absolutely important in order to excel and possess the tactics required for any corporate negotiations.

Listed below are some of the best negotiation tactics that can come to your aid regardless of whether you’re negotiating a multi-billion dollar merger, or the price of fruit in a local marketplace:

Ask for the higher authority

This is one of the strategies that relies more on the mental impact it creates rather than anything monetary. The reason why this strategy works is because it creates a perception in the mind of your counterpart that you firmly believe that the offer you made is good enough and that a higher authority will likely accept it. You’d be right to wonder exactly why your counterpart would allow you access to a higher authority. And the answer is; they are not supposed to. You are both sitting at the negotiation table representing the interests of two different parties; this tactic is meant to create the impression that you’ve made the best offer from your side and you’re willing to bet that the higher power will accept your offer.

If you’re wondering whether this’ll work, this is the tactic that won the Winkelvoss twins’ team a $160 million settlement vs Mark Zuckerberg in the famous Facebook lawsuit.

No emotions

It is important that you realize one absolute truth about negotiations; emotions are a liability. If your counterpart even gets the slightest hint that you’re exhibiting weakness, they will prey upon it. Emotions, positive or negative need to be at their minimum if you hope to accomplish your goals and objectives inside the negotiation room. A lot of times, your competitor might deliberately make low offers or demand exuberantly high sums in order to assess your perception. Any positive or negative emotions will give away your position and only make your counterpart’s position stronger.

Use notepads

This is another tactic that relies more on the mental impact it can create. It has become a trend recently, to communicate through notepads using numbers and sums only. This allows you to move forward in a negotiation without getting stuck on inconsequential details. This has the added advantage of eliminating points of weakness or strength that body language or tone of voice tend to give away. By using written communication, you place yourself in the stronger position.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.