The Art of Negotiation: 7 Essential Skills

The art of negotiation is an essential skill to have in both business and everyday life.

From discussing a collaboration, to your salary, to why a company should hire you, to why an idea should be considered, knowing how to effectively negotiate will help you tremendously.

What skills do you need to have for negotiating? How can you persuade and convince other people to consider your idea? How can you communicate effectively and maximize your chances of success?

Take a look at 7 key skills below:

7 Essential Skills

You need to recognize and be clear on these 7 factors prior to any negotiation…

1) Know your standards:

Be 100% clear in your mind on what you must attain and what you can live without. Additionally, be clear on what you absolutely cannot accept.

Having clear, set standards will help you to negotiate more effectively and confidently. You're less likely to make a hasty decision you'll regret if your standards are clear-cut by the time you walk into the negotiation.

2) Know whom you’re negotiating with:

DO YOUR RESEARCH! Learn as much as you can about the other party as possible: their background, history, and reputation.

Learn what their needs, interests, and desires are likely to be. Learn about whom they know. Anticipate their questions and concerns.

Then, think carefully and craft your information to personalize their specific needs and situation; this is going to create a deeper, more impactful connection that can get results.

Especially with tools provided by the internet, such as LinkedIn and Google, it's easier than ever before to learn about who we're going to meet. The more knowledge you have of the other party, the more leverage you have during a negotiation. Knowledge is power.

3) Create & use leverage:

Always put yourself in position where you can walk away if the deal doesn't work out. Know all of your options and always do your best to be in a position to walk away if needed.

If you are desperate, hasty, or too emotional during negotiations, you can and often will be taken advantage of, or at least, you will get poor results from your negotiation.

Know your standards as discussed previously and know your options, this gives you the most leverage in any negotiation. Just like picking the best ingredients for a recipe, be patient, search around, and select the option that best suits your needs, not the first thing you see!

This is the art of creating your own leverage.

4) Don't be selfish:

Aim for win-win situations. A truly skilled and successful negotiator knows that negotiation involves some compromise and genuinely thinking how to bring value to all parties, not just their own.

While it’s great to maximize your success (and you should make sure you don't get shorted!), don’t just look at what YOU will get out of this. COLLABORATE and create WINNING situations for all parties where everyone wins something valuable.

By finding a solution that benefits all parties, not only have you found a solution, you have also built a relationship and opportunity to work together in the future. Always think long-term, not just about what’s right in front of you right now.

Nobody likes “negotiating” with someone who is only looking out for themselves, doing this may win you some battles, but you will lose the war, burn bridges, and you'll build a reputation for only taking and never giving.

5) Be a good listener & ask questions:

If you want meaningful win-win situations, you need to understand what the other party's needs and values really are. In addition to doing research before the negotiation, the other key way is by earnestly listening and asking questions, especially when you don't understand something.

Actively engage yourself in the discussion and understand as much as possible. Firstly, this helps you gather tons of useful, sometimes previously unknown intel. Secondly, when people feel they are being listened to, it is easier to build trust and connection.

This will also help you understand how to best help them.

6) Profile people, read personalities, & adjust accordingly:

Learn to read and profile people. Are the other parties more outgoing? Introverted? Shy? Do they like to ask questions? Are they more direct?

Be aware and understand that everyone has different styles and slightly adjust your own communication style accordingly. For example, a more direct person is more likely to not only accept, but appreciate, you being more direct as well.

A shyer person may feel the need to ask more questions, learn about each other, and "warm up" prior to getting to the main point of discussion. This is often related to personality, culture, and location.

Be observant and flexible, this will equip you to know how to communicate with all styles of people.

7) Be honest & even vulnerable:

Transparency and honesty are essential to succeeding in negotiations. We live in a world where so much of what we see is fake or only partially true.

While you don't necessarily need to share every detail about yourself, being open, frank, candid, and honest helps others to relax and build trust. Additionally, occasionally sharing your failures, mistakes, and weaknesses can build even more trust as the other party will see you are not trying to hide anything.

Be genuine, honest, transparent, and sometimes even vulnerable. Don't make things up, make claims you can't back up, create false expectations, or cover up important details, otherwise, you will not only be found out sooner or later, your reputation will also take a hit.

Conclusion

Negotiating takes practice, but it can be learned and mastered! If you learn to master this skill, you will be able to better sell your own ideas, no matter whom it is you’re talking to. The next step is to take action, now go implement!

PS. In addition to my LinkedIn articles, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. If you want more free, weekly, actionable English communication skills articles (like this one) and tips specially designed for managers at global life science companies to help you use your English communication skills more clearly, confidently, and professionally in your career, along with my free ebook: “Managers at Global Life Science Companies: 3 Keys of English Communication Skills to Land Your Next Promotion”, subscribe to my free weekly email newsletter here.

2. These are all the exact things I help my clients with in my Premium Digital Course, the Career Accelerator. Over the course of just 4 weeks, I help managers and directors at Global Life Science Companies use their English communication skills more clearly, confidently, and professionally at work to land more promotions and advance their careers. If you want all the details of how I'm helping life science managers every week, how I can help you, and want to check out some client success stories, click here.

3. If you're looking for more private, personalized coaching, scheduling, and highly tailored sessions just for you that can help you get even quicker results with your English communication skills for your career, click here to book a time to talk with me and see if you're a good fit for my 1-1 coaching.