TM Application - What are the five steps to a successful negotiation?
The first step in a successful negotiation is the easiest: know what you want. Ask yourself, "what is it I really want from this person or situation?" It's the easiest, but that doesn't mean it's not hard sometimes just knowing what it is you want or hope to accomplish. You may think you want one thing and then find out that it was about something totally different all along. Which isn't necessarily bad or anything, it just might mean you walk away from the table with the thing you only thought you wanted and not the thing that you later found out was what you really wanted. So before you even bother trying to get something, make sure it's the thing you really want.
Step two is to decide how much it's worth and then how much more you're willing to pay for it or in other cases, how much less you're willing to accept for it. Everyone has their price, but you're not always going to get it. That's a given. So instead of just this single price, you have to come up with a range. If someone makes you an offer that falls within said range, then great. You've got a deal. If they fail to meet even your lowest of expectations, then walk away already. Sometimes the walking away part is what makes them eventually decide to make you the kind of offer you can't refuse.
Three is to make your offer. You know what you want, you know what your limits are as far as the negotiating process goes. Now it's time to make a play for it. Sometimes this step is also known as getting an offer. It's the same thing really, it's just less legwork for you because they're doing the asking. The offer stage is really a crucial one. It can determine if you walk away from the table right then and there, either because you got what you wanted or because you know for a fact you're not going to. Which means that step four may or may not apply.
Step four is to make a counter-offer if necessary. Common practice is to low-ball it, because you can always go higher but the same isn't quite true in reverse. You can't exactly start offering someone less than what you've already offered. Usually at this point, things go back and forth a little while and most of the time in any serious negotiation, the parties settle right around this stage. But if not...
Five: Fight like Hell. Let's face it, sometimes you've gotta get your hands a little dirty. Sometimes it's not enough to have a solid plan and to stick by it. I may not be the most business minded person in the world, but even I know how to play the game. So if Victoria thinks for one second that she's really going to take my company from me, she is sadly mistaken. Because this isn't even a negotiation anymore.
It's war.
Brooke Davis
One Tree Hill
497 Words
Step two is to decide how much it's worth and then how much more you're willing to pay for it or in other cases, how much less you're willing to accept for it. Everyone has their price, but you're not always going to get it. That's a given. So instead of just this single price, you have to come up with a range. If someone makes you an offer that falls within said range, then great. You've got a deal. If they fail to meet even your lowest of expectations, then walk away already. Sometimes the walking away part is what makes them eventually decide to make you the kind of offer you can't refuse.
Three is to make your offer. You know what you want, you know what your limits are as far as the negotiating process goes. Now it's time to make a play for it. Sometimes this step is also known as getting an offer. It's the same thing really, it's just less legwork for you because they're doing the asking. The offer stage is really a crucial one. It can determine if you walk away from the table right then and there, either because you got what you wanted or because you know for a fact you're not going to. Which means that step four may or may not apply.
Step four is to make a counter-offer if necessary. Common practice is to low-ball it, because you can always go higher but the same isn't quite true in reverse. You can't exactly start offering someone less than what you've already offered. Usually at this point, things go back and forth a little while and most of the time in any serious negotiation, the parties settle right around this stage. But if not...
Five: Fight like Hell. Let's face it, sometimes you've gotta get your hands a little dirty. Sometimes it's not enough to have a solid plan and to stick by it. I may not be the most business minded person in the world, but even I know how to play the game. So if Victoria thinks for one second that she's really going to take my company from me, she is sadly mistaken. Because this isn't even a negotiation anymore.
It's war.
Brooke Davis
One Tree Hill
497 Words