Resources
We hope that business negotiators find what they're searching for in our free resources. This is the next best thing to coming to one of our negotiation training courses.
Conflict Negotiation: Psychological Dynamics
"It is easier to perceive error than to find the truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it."Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Freud is alleged to have said, "A cigar is just a cigar". Yet at the negotiation table, differences in perception are too often distorted and magnified by the emotions and biased outcomes of one or more parties. Negotiation often needs to go through a conflict resolution
Articles
Third-Party Agents
The Role of a Third-Party Agent Even as negotiation trainers we often use third-party agents to represent our interests in the negotiation process. We use them as we believe that their expertise as negotiators will better serve our goals and achieve better results. Many agents are paid on a commission basis. As a consequence, they can be very concerned about a negotiated outcome. This is because of what they might derive from the negotiation, whether trained or not. Their influence
Case Studies
Negotiation
Negotiation is an interactive process between two or more negotiators or parties seeking to find common ground on issues of mutual interest, where the negotiators or parties seek to make a mutually acceptable agreement that will be honoured by all. In business negotiation, internal negotiations with colleagues are often as challenging as external buyer-seller negotiations. Negotiators usually seek an agreement on the exchange or sharing of products, services and to
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What Is Win-Win Negotiation?
Ever heard someone say that they "gave away the farm?" Despite our best intentions, we sometimes negotiate too much value away to arrive at an agreement. Even when we enter our talks with high motivations and with a cheery spirit of cooperation, we have to be wary. It's wise to dip our toes cautiously into the waters to make sure we aren't about to be devoured by a grinning, hungry shark. Today, many of us hear that win-win negotiations are all the rage. Academia has in more recent times
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The Price of Giving Face in China
Overview Chando, a Chinese shipbuilder, had agreed to change the main engine in a ship it was building for the Danish shipowner Danske. Although this would involve a lot of work and great expense for Chando, it was willing to substitute a low-speed engine for one of medium speed. Prior to this, Jurgen Martens, Danske’s vice-president and technical director, had made a very good impression on the senior Chando people, as had their sales and marketing director. Usually, a shipyard
Case Studies
Multiple Offers
A technique sometimes employed to offset the possibility of anchoring in an integrative negotiation. Multiple offers are two or more offers or proposals of relatively equal value that are presented simultaneously to invite greater discussion of the issues under negotiation.
How to Build Client Relationships in Business
What would you do? A top-tier accounting firm was busy celebrating another year of fee income growth from one of its most important audit clients, a huge telecommunications business. The audit had run smoothly from the accountants’ view, despite some hiccups on delivery times and quality control. However, overall, the advisers were happy with the depth of the relationship they had built and their position to keep the plum business. So, when the client asked for an internal
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Competitive Business Conflict Escalation
Healthy Competition Has Its Place Competition is clearly a healthy means to increase sales for any business. It's essential because competition provides a stimulus for a company or organization to prosper and grow. However, does this mean that a company should compete at all costs? The answer, of course, is "no"! There comes a point when excessive competition may cause serious harm when the losses exceed the gains. Sounds like simple common sense, doesn't it? Yet, there are
Case Studies
Multi Party Negotiation
A negotiation that involves more than two negotiating parties in a negotiation.
Definitions
21 Fun Stress Releases and How to Negotiate them
If you work in IT, and you're not experiencing stress on the job, consider yourself lucky - very lucky. In a 2006 stress survey, 97% of people working in IT reported that they experienced on the job stress - not just occasionally - but on a daily basis. Medical professionals who frequently experience trauma and death among patients, had the next highest stress. Stress leads to physical conditions including obesity, diabetes, ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular
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Negotiation Alliances
Alliance Benefits In multiparty negotiations, the negotiation power, or the position of one negotiating party, can be enhanced or weakened by making alliances. The use of alliances is a powerful technique. By utilizing alliances, any member in a multiparty negotiation can strengthen their own BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). Conversely, alliances can weaken the BATNA of an opponent. The main advantage of forming an alliance is that it allows two or more
Case Studies
Merger and Acquisition Negotiation
A negotiation process conducted for the merger or joining of two companies into a single business entity, or the outright purchase of a company by another company.
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Getting to Yes (book review & summary)
Getting to Yes - Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury was first published in 1981. The title has become a classic read for any novice interested in learning negotiation skills. While the book is still a very useful read, the reader should be aware that negotiation theory has not remained static. Many negotiation writers have challenged some aspects of Fisher and Ury's model and approach, as negotiation itself has evolved due to rapid changes
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Overconfidence in Negotiation
Balanced Confidence Negotiation courses often suggest that business managers need to possess a high level of confidence to succeed. Confidence allows managers to meet the many challenges they face in a fast-paced and evolving business climate. However, there's a hazy line that separates being confident in what we do and becoming overconfident. Overconfidence is a serious mental error that lurks in the background, like a banana peel lying innocently splayed on the sidewalk.
Case Studies
Mediation
Mediation usually consists of a negotiation process that employs a ‘mutually agreed’ upon third party to settle a dispute between negotiating parties to find a compatible agreement to resolve disputes.
Definitions
Gender Communication Styles
Gender Communication Style Differences: Women in Negotiations Little did we know that the communication differences we experienced as children on the playground would move from the classroom to the boardroom. As the face of business transforms with more women occupying key management positions, the requirement of reducing the gender communication gap is growing: miscommunication can cost money, opportunities, and jobs. Statistics tell the story. In the USA, women
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'Chinese Negotiations' 'Guanxi'
How it all starts A well-known, government-owned, five-star hotel in Beijing owns an associated marketing company called High Jewel Marketing. With branches in six cities including the capital, it has both a retail division, which sells jewellery and handicrafts to foreign tourists at high prices, and a wholesale division selling export-quality clothing and high-quality home appliances. One of the marketing company’s senior managers was formerly a high Communist
Case Studies
Majority Rule
A concept often employed in ‘Group’ or ‘Multi Party’ negotiations to achieve consensus or agreement. As the term implies, a decision or agreement is reached after having been voted upon and decided in favor by a majority of the parties present at the negotiating table
Definitions
8 Effective Negotiation Training Skills
We learn a lot from school and later skills training, but the truth is that unless we learn the most important lessons and can apply these skills outside of the classroom in the tough school of hard knocks we call 'real life', our results will be less than stellar. So which are the training course theories that will serve us best in the real world in our business negotiation challenges? Learning to negotiate effectively in a negotiation does not come naturally to everyone. A few of
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Distributive Negotiation Settlement
Theory A distributive negotiation will focus on the division of a set amount of resources, largely determined by the aspiration price (the maximum that party 'A' would like to get, constrained by the lowest amount that party 'B' would like to pay), and the reservation price (the lowest amount that party 'A' would be prepared to accept, and the maximum that party 'B' would prepared to pay). Well over 90% of all civil lawsuits in USA are settled out of court, and most are largely resolved
Case Studies
