Strategic Negotiation

刚读完的一本书是樊登推荐的《掌控谈话》。原名Never Split the Difference: Negotiation As If Your Life Depended on It，作者是FBI负责人质谈判的大牛。我是把它作为谈判教科书来看的，信息量很大，也有很多新颖的观点和技巧，但翻译比较糟糕，影响了阅读体验和实际应用。在写读书笔记之前先贴一篇去年我在公司内网上发布的谈判课程笔记，温故而知新。

In case you haven’t notice, you can find rich (and free) learning resource on LinkedIn Learning. I recently watched a course called “Strategic Negotiation” and here are some of my takeaways.   There’s nothing particularly new here, but it could be a handy checklist before major negotiations or training materials for salespeople. For more detailed explanation and examples, you can check out the complete module on LinkedIn Learning.

Before Negotiation

• Consider the relationship with the opponent: Long term or short term?
  1. Decide Negotiation Style
  2. Emotion and Fairness is Important: Fairness affects the opponent’s intention to negotiate and could be a dealbreaker

• Know your opponent
  1. Decision-maker: Who is the decision maker / stakeholder? What is their background, position, experience etc.? Do they have complete authority?
  2. Interest: What are their interests or concerns?
  3. Purpose: What is their purpose in this negotiation? What response can you anticipate from them?
  4. Alternative: What could be their backup plan?
• Set the goals in terms of both substance and relationship
  1. Consult with decision maker
  2. Categorize your goals: Must have/hope to have/good to have 
  3. Anticipate result
  4. Set exit point
  5. Prepare backup plan: what the parties will do if they walk away from the negotiation without coming to an agreement
• Design Transaction Structure
  1. Objective criteria: objective benchmarks, precedents and standards that make your position more fair
  2. Obstacles: anticipate the challenges and think of solutions to tackle them
  3. Timeline: construct an agenda and use time if it is in favor of your side
  4. Options: find win-win solutions to satisfy all parties’ interests by for example increasing the pie

During Negotiation

• Anchor the Transaction
  1. Based on reality, use available data
  2. Change it if you don’t like opponent’s anchor (e.g. change the measurement or business model from one-off purchase to subscription)
• Focus on Priority
  1. Make sure to deliver your core message
  2. Pause on the key point and go back to the top priority later
  3. Make a storyline to justify each of your position (e.g. “We’ve made compromises on other points.”)
• Negotiation Skills: Use them on your opponent & Don’t let opponent use them on you

• Evaluate Development of Negotiation
  1. Know your opponent’s position
  2. Know your side’s past quotes
  3. Determine what tentative agreements you might reach in the meeting
  4. Plan for the next steps that can get you closer to an agreement on substance
• Change Your Way of Negotiation
  1. Be flexible and adaptable
  2. It’s okay to change position/style/anchor during negotiation
  3. Weigh the risk of change
• Prepare for Future Transaction
  1. Current transaction lays foundation for future deals 
  2. Reverse your compromise in the next deal (e.g. increasing the price)
  3. Keep your advantage in the next deal
• Avoid Traps
  1. NOT know opponent or process
  2. NOT know the major concerns of each party
  3. Inappropriate anchor-setting: prefer setting anchor by your side – > use our templates
  4. Damage relationship