WHAT SHOULD EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT NEGOTIATION?

Mira ZasloveDirector of Sales. Enjoys negotiating. Lives in Silicon Valley with husband and baby daughter.

I’ve spent the majority of my career negotiating and

training people to negotiate. Along the way I’ve made

plenty of mistakes and learned that negotiation can often be improved by actually doing

the opposite of what I’d originally think to do.

Most things in life are negotiable &

You can improve your negotiation skills

with four tips.

Mistake 1: Providing too many optionsConventional wisdom: Offer as many options as possible when negotiating. The other party is bound to agree with one.

Limit options to 2-3. The paradox of choice dictates that the more choices you provide to someone the more they like aspects of each option.

TIP

Mistake 2: Falling for the bluffConventional wisdom: When someone gets passionate and appears overly confident, you generally believe them.

The more someone is trying to impress you with their confidence and how serious they are, generally the more they are bluffing. 

TIP

Mistake 3: Playing games & bluffing yourself.Conventional wisdom: Negotiation

is adversarial, the more you let the other party know what you want, the more they are going to use it to their advantage and exploit you.

If you are not clear about what you want, you are unlikely to get it. State what you want and focus only on your intended goal and not on your ego.  Relay your position in a simple, straight-forward, and confident way.  

TIP

Mistake 4: Dwelling on sunk costs & time spentConventional wisdom: The more time and money you've spent on a deal the closer you are to closing it and the better deal it's going to be.

Most of my best deals were quick deals because they were simple.  Generally, the more complicated a deal is, the less likely you are to close it.  Focus on deals that make sense, because time is your most valuable asset.   

TIP

1: Providing too many options

2: Falling for the bluff

3: Playing games & bluffing yourself.

4: Dwelling on sunk costs & time spent

Mistakes

mira-zaslove

Mira-Zaslove

@mirazaslove