Improve Your Negotiations With The 5 Golden Rules.   LEARN THEM
Annual Lessons Learned to Implement in 2022

Annual Lessons Learned to Implement in 2022

Here’s my annual list of lessons learned from my 2021 columns and a reminder to put these strategies into practice in 2022. You won’t get better results if you don’t implement them. Each also has a link to my column with more detail. Don’t scream at negotiation...

Offer-Concession Language Tips

The language you use in making your offers and concessions and the signal it sends can have a strong impact on whether your offers or concessions will be accepted.  Here are some general tips: Be specific and detailed Explain your rationale and tie your offer to...

Five Offer-Concession Strategy Tips

With the ongoing debt-deal negotiation between President Obama and House Speaker Boehner providing us with an elucidating example of the offer-concession process (check out this handy chart quantifying both sides’ moves via the Washington Post), here are five tips to...

Offer and Concession Strategies: How Much to Budge

When it comes to negotiations, I’m often asked: “How much should we move in a negotiation after we open? And how much should we move later, and when and how? I usually respond with the following story. John had just filed for divorce and was representing himself in...

Offer/Concession Strategy Must Reflect Ultimate Goal

I bought my first car in 1987. It was the shortest negotiation in my life. My dad offered to sell me his 1981 Datsun 280ZX for its “Blue Book” value, $5,500. I said, “OK.” End of negotiation. “Wait a second,” some of you might say. “Didn’t you once write that first...

Obama Learns Lesson in Negotiation Tactics

President Barack Obama said on Feb. 9, “I suppose what I could have done is started off with no tax cuts (in the stimulus bill), knowing that I was going to want some, and then let (the Republicans) take credit for all of them. And maybe that’s the lesson...