Advanced Negotiation Techniques

CHAPTER 5

Ten Golden Rules for Successful Negotiation

The guidelines covered in this chapter identify the techniques available to control and influence events to your own advantage. They also provide a good defense against aggressive negotiators, thereby producing better agreements with fewer expensive concessions. Everyone feels they know how to negotiate, just as everyone knows how to kick a soccer ball. But try explaining the off-side rule in soccer to a beginner and compare that with understanding the subtleties of defensive negotiation. It is then that the need for clear rules becomes more important. We’ll start by simply listing the ten golden rules, and then we’ll explain each one in turn.

1. Don’t negotiate unless you need to.
2. Never negotiate ...