Negotiation Columns & Blogs

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Knowing Your Opponent Critical in Solving Disputes
In 1979, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware was heading to Moscow when the Senate leadership asked him to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and negotiate an amendment to the SALT II arms-control treaty. Biden was told the Senate would not ratify the treaty...
Dealing With the Irrational, Real or Posed, Is Tough
A successful businesswoman once asked me to negotiate for her in buying out her partner’s interest in a piece of property. The negotiation, as sometimes occurs in partnership disputes gone bad, was ugly. Unfortunately, their relationship was poor. In fact, at one...
Personal Styles Can Make or Break a Negotiation
You know the type: super-competitive, hard-nosed risk-takers always out to “win.” You also know the opposite type: conflict avoiders. They dislike any conflict, especially the interpersonal kind. And they value peace and quiet above most everything. How we naturally...
Watch Out for Egos When Negotiating
Remember the classic television show “Columbo?” In it, Detective Frank Columbo was a bumbling detective who investigated high-profile murders. Huge egos surrounded him. Often, wealthy businessmen or politicians would be under suspicion, and eager prosecutors would...
Effective Negotiators Exhibit Patience
“He just wanted me to get the deal done. “It’s time to stop the back and forth,” he said. “Just sign the deal.” “Patience,” I told him. “We’ve got strong leverage here, a very good alternative, and I believe we can save a significant sum of money with one more move...
Costly Ego Just One Of The Major Negotiation Pitfalls
I once sold an ordinary $20 bill to a lawyer in New York City for $83. How? By getting his ego involved. Here’s what happened: I announced in a seminar for about 100 New York lawyers that “I’m going to auction this $20 bill off to the highest bidder. “You are free to...
Dealing With Angry And Vindictive Individuals
“She was angry and vindictive,” he told me. Her husband had betrayed her love and trust by having an affair. Now it was payback time – and she wanted a chunk of his flesh, which she figured meant 75% of their joint assets in their divorce. Unfortunately for her, the...
Effective Strategies For Dealing With Difficult People
“He was demanding, unorganized and he didn’t know what he really wanted. And he took a shotgun approach to the issues, all of which needed to be resolved immediately. It lasted six months, and it was incredibly frustrating.” This comment by a client sums up a...
Effective Traits in Successful Negotiators
William Shatner in his Priceline commercials portrays a caricature of the aggressive, adversarial, competitive and slightly sleazy negotiator who wheels and deals to get you the best prices. And he gets them - in the commercials. But do these characteristics in real...
Learn to detect, deal with big egos
What do the NFL, NBA, and federal budget negotiations all have in common? Highly successful parties at the table, many of whom over their careers have developed significant egos. Since we all have egos, why should you care? Because you should use certain techniques...
How to Evaluate, Measure Negotiation Successes
"How can we evaluate the negotiation ability of our managers, sales people and others who negotiate on behalf of our company?" I was recently asked by a client. "After all, we only rarely get the opportunity to really find out what they left on the table. Few of their...
All Win: Non-Competitive Negotiations Score
Ron told me to put up my dukes. So I did. And we went at it. It was in our basement. Ron, my older brother, was 11. I was 10. My dad, a former Golden Gloves boxer, had taught us to box so we could defend ourselves. Ron and I occasionally fought over the usual sibling...
Civility is a ‘Win, Win’ When Doing Business
I was surprised. Instead of working with me to resolve the challenge we unexpectedly faced, he immediately said he would see me in court and didn't express any regret for partially contributing to the situation. His seemingly knee-jerk reaction was not a smart...
How You Can Avoid Being Exploited In Negotiations
Do nice negotiators tend to finish last -- or "lose" more often -- in their negotiations? And if so, how can they protect themselves from this tendency and be more effective? This is a central dilemma for many nice negotiators. When faced with an aggressive and...
When to Move Up the Chain
A client recently asked for advice concerning his negotiation to collect a $17,000 bill from a customer. The relationship had deteriorated in part due to a major personality conflict, and his customer – after agreeing to pay the balance – changed her mind and sent...

Free Negotiation Training:
Learn Latz's 5 Golden Rules of Negotiation.
We'll send you a new video for each rule and you'll get Marty Latz's monthly column with great negotiation tips. We will not share your info. (privacy policy).
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