The Negotiation Book

Final Thoughts

Your ability to build agreements, dissolve deadlock situations, pre-condition expectations, and close sustainable deals requires all of the skills, attributes, knowledge, and self-awareness we have covered in The Negotiation Book.

For many, the challenges presented by negotiation do not come naturally and, as with any performance coupled with your own motivation to continuously improve, you have one of the most rewarding personal development opportunities available to you.

Negotiating effectively is firstly about accepting that it is only you who can influence the situations you are faced with. You can blame the market, personalities, timing, your options, the power balance, or any circumstance that you may think happens to be working against you, but ultimately it is you who can turn around situations (including deadlock situations) into workable and profitable deals.

It is time to stay calm, see the tactics for what they are, be proactive, and exercise nerve and patience. Power, real or perceived, however generated, will play its part in your negotiations. No matter how good you are as a negotiator, where the balance of power is against you or your circumstances, you will no doubt experience the frustration of feeling compromised. Trust your instinct, exercise composure. It will make the difference between the agreements where you create value and the ones where you simply distribute it.

If you have to take a time-out, adjourn the meeting, or go back and revisit ...