Negotiating is a critical skill every leader needs to have in their toolbox. Without this skill, how can you push ideas (big or small) for your company, your team, and for yourself? How can you win people over? Having proper negotiating skills is important if you want to execute and create change.
Preparation is everything in negotiating.
We'll talk more about the tactical part of negotiating in future posts. In this post, let's talk about how to prepare for negotiations. Preparation is everything in negotiating. There is no point coming to a negotiating situation if you did not put substantial effort in preparing for it.
Here are some tips to prepare for negotiations:
1. Should I negotiate or should I not?
This is an important question to ask yourself before you even consider negotiating about a certain issue. Is it appropriate to even bring up the issue now or bring it up at all? The situation may fall outside of your scope of responsibilities or authority. Remember: You don't have to negotiate everything. There is always an option NOT to negotiate.
Remember: You don't negotiate everything. There is always an option NOT to negotiate.
2. "Stop, ANTICIPATE, and listen."
Now that you've determined that you should negotiate a certain issue, it's now time for "strategic anticipation."
What do I have to consider before I negotiate? Consider the other party: Is there a conflict of interest? Their personality, culture, and views. What other options does the other party have on this matter? How do external factors impact their decision-making process?
What motivates the other party? What are their goals? Is there a way your idea can meet their goals, too? Knowing the forces that can affect the other party is important.
Strategic anticipation is like the game of chess. You need to understand how the other party would react to your moves.
3. "Framing or packaging the negotiations"
After gathering the information and making proper strategic anticipation, you'll now need to figure out how to properly frame or package your ideas before presenting it to the other party.
In your mind or in your point-of-view, you may have good idea. That's great, but, does the other party think the same way? Framing/packaging your idea accordingly is key to get the message through. Based on your strategic anticipation process, how can you properly frame your idea to fit their personality, culture, and views? How would you present your idea in a way that will make sense to the other party?
During this stage, you may also arrange or prioritize your messaging points. What would you discuss first? How would you package a certain part of the idea that may receive push-back from the other party? Figure out a way to introduce your idea and change how the other party views it.
Having a great idea is worthless if you can't get your idea across.
Having a great idea is worthless if you can't get your idea across. You may have a seed to a money tree. That seed would be worth nothing if you don't plant it on the ground. It doesn't stop with planting that seed. You need to nurture and provide the proper attention and resources for that seed to blossom.
What other things can you suggest to prepare for a negotiation?