First Step Marketing

Cool negotiation

The ways and means of your doing that lie in three simple steps — the Three S’s of Cool Negotiation. These tell you that you need to:

• Spot what’s happening
• Step away from the anger
• Speak assertively. Read the rest of this entry »

Negotiating and stress go hand-in-hand. You’re anxious that you will lose; you don’t want to be ‘taken for a ride’ or ‘ripped off’ by an aggressive and manipulative opponent who’s out to get his or her needs answered at your expense. You’ll get upset, frustrated, put out if you don’t get what you want. Even when things are going well, you can feel frustrated because the other side is slow to respond to your proposals or because they are unable or unwilling to acknowledge or recognize the compromises that you’re making. All of these emotions are perfectly natural. After all, you’re a human being and human beings do have feelings. Read the rest of this entry »

When you hear about negotiations in the newspapers or hear about them on TV or radio programmes, they are often described as having ‘winners’ or ‘losers’. In high profile industrial disputes or in compensation cases, it is a victory for one side and a defeat for the other. But negotiating is something that you do with someone — not to them. This means that, in reality, these sorts of negotiation generally consist of discussions between professional negotiators — discussions that are aimed at reaching agreements, agreements to which everybody involved is a party, agreements that contain benefits to both sides. Read the rest of this entry »