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How much time does your company spend business planning each year? If you are a typical company, especially a larger one, probably hours and hours are spent drawing up budgets and then monitoring progress against those budgets. How much time do you spend putting together marketing plans? Again, the answer is probably many hours as you seek to position and publicize your products and services.
The importance of planning in negotiation
Now let me ask you how much time you spend planning your negotiations when you are making deals? If you are a typical company the answer will be "not a lot." Everybody is always too busy chasing orders, chasing new customers, chasing cash, and, of course spending time on business plans and marketing plans. Yet quality deal-making has never been more important. The recession and the global reach of new technologies mean that that we live in a new "deal economy" where everybody needs to make deals with partners in order to succeed. Yet negotiation skills are seldom taught or practiced. This can mean people either lack confidence when they negotiate, or they negotiate from gut instinct - not really knowing why it has worked when a deal goes well, or what went wrong when a negotiation doesn't work out. All of this means that preparation for negotiations is crucial - fail to prepare and you prepare to fail.
Key tips for negotiation
So what are the crucial things to bear in mind when you are planning your negotiation?
Review the teams
First, think about the make-up of the team on the other side. Who will they deploy? What's their history of dealing with us, good or bad? Are they likely to be united? Are there any "tough guys" on the other side? These are people who pile on the negotiation pressure - for example using threats, aggression, deadline tactics, or playing "good cop/bad cop." These people need to be planned for in advance. Now think about the same issues for your...