Negotiation Strategies

“I just don’t have time to comprehensively prepare for every negotiation. I know I should – but it’s just not practical. Plus, not all my negotiations involve big stakes.”

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard this. It seems almost everyone intellectually accepts two basic tenets of strategic negotiations: a) planning based on the experts’ research pays large dividends in better results; and b) planning saves time by increasing efficiency and reducing the likelihood of impasses.

I recently led a seminar with a panel of expert negotiators, and each shared a particularly effective strategy they had used in their careers. Here are their pearls.

• Creatively explore the parties' interests.

Judge John Buttrick of the Maricopa County Superior Court told of a case in which a product manufacturer sued a trade magazine regarding negative product reviews because it felt they were false and unjustified. The magazine sued the manufacturer as it believed the manufacturer had unfairly publicly criticized the magazine.

A fascinating set of negotiations just concluded that will affect almost 1/6th of our economy and almost all our lives. So what can we learn from them?

Last week I had two canceled flights, a car service that didn't show up, a cab driver who didn't know where he was going, a missed flight connection that forced me to stay overnight in Philadelphia, and a train that hit a tree and got stuck.

Despite this, I still made it to all my destinations relatively on time, which is significant as I had seminars for about 400 lawyers and business professionals in these various places.

What does this have to do with negotiation? Negotiating with travel-related entities can be extremely challenging. Here are a few suggestions.

I made several significant purchases during the holidays (including a car) and these negotiations highlighted four lessons that apply in almost all negotiations.

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