Essentials for Government Contract Negotiators

Chapter 37

Conducting the Negotiation

After you have opened the negotiation and transitioned to your first tactic, conducting the negotiation from this point on should be a simple matter of following your negotiation plan. Don’t cling to your plan rigidly, however. Things will change during the negotiation as information is swapped between sides. Your plan has to be flexible enough to bend to incorporate these inevitable changes.

Since how you conduct the negotiation will depend on what you are negotiating, how you planned it, what happens during the event, and the personalities of the individuals involved, there is no set process for how it should be done. Instead, I’ve compiled a list of negotiation do’s and don’ts you can use as a guide. Feel ...