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Understanding Negotiating Basics
Recently I was negotiating a $1M+ deal. Once the deal had closed, a few agents for the other party approached me to talk about my negotiation tactics. They said that I was the first person who actually got them to close a deal at their best possible price and wanted to learn how I had gotten them to push so far to close the deal.
At the time, I didn’t have a clear answer for them so I took some time to jot down some notes, strategies and insights that I later shared with them. Since negotiation is something I get asked about a lot by readers I wanted to share some of those insights with you today.
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Never try to solve their problems for them - One of the questions that I find myself asking a lot during negotiations is, “How do you propose we do that?”. What I find is that during a negotiation, people often ask for things, but they don’t actually think about how I can deliver them. For example, if someone wants me to help them fundraise and I quote them $30,000 and provide a breakdown of that cost, and they come back and say they were hoping to do it for $20,000 instead of the traditional response of trying to haggle on price I simply ask how they propose we do that. Often the reply is a combination of them cutting out specific services (so I need to do less work) and them raising their price. In short I get the same value for my time instead of trying to haggle down my price while committing to the same workload.
Listen more than you talk - For some a negotiation is about “beating” the other side. In my view it’s about understanding what they need and determining how best you can provide that while benefiting yourself. If you learn to listen, you’ll often hear that there are some numbers, benefits, etc., that they are more focused on than anything else. Once you know what that is you can give them what they want and build the rest of the deal to your benefit.
Voice your understanding - Lots of negotiations die when the two sides don’t feel like the other side is hearing them. It might sound dumb, but just saying. “So it seems like you want….” and repeating what they say makes them know you are listening and makes them feel like there is some progress. At the very least they aren’t just talking to a wall.
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