Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals

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New Free Report – Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals

Take Your Business Negotiation Strategies to the Next Level

Jared’s story describes how he learned to make the best of a deal gone wrong. Here’s how he tells it:

I’ll admit it – I got a raw deal.

As the town comptroller, I was recently involved in negotiating a multi-year lease for one of our largest parking garages. The deal was designed to alleviate the burden on our employees and generate much-needed dollars for our town’s coffers.

This contract negotiation was important and there was a lot riding on it: My staff, my community, and even my reputation.

But as soon as the deal was done, the new parking garage managers raised the rates to exorbitant prices. My phone starting ringing off the hook with calls from angry residents. Not only was it bad for the town, it was bad for our bottom line.

I’m a pretty strong negotiator, but I have the good sense to know when I’m in over my head. With the pressure starting to mount, I started looking for information that could help me navigate a deal gone wrong…and learn how to avoid this type of situation in the future.

I came across Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals, the special free report from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. In its pages, I gained real, actionable advice from people who’ve been in situations very similar to mine.

More specifically, I learned how to:

• Ask for a renegotiation – Most people have an innate desire to be fair and they may be willing to reopen a discussion before the end of your contract period

• Present a concrete case – By presenting clear evidence of a lopsided contract, you can appeal to the other side’s sense of decency and desire for a good faith negotiation

• Make attention-getting moves – Help your counterpart situ up and take notice by refusing to meet the contested contract terms

• Bring out the big guns – Sometimes a show of power works, so put heavy hitters in charge of negotiating contract revisions

And while I can’t turn back time, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals also shared some critical business negotiation strategies that can help me get the deal right in the first place:

• Create breaks – Try experimenting with a shorter contract that allows for natural breaks for review and renegotiation

• Prepare for disputes – Disputes are often inevitable so add a clause to your contract that requires renegotiation, mediation, or arbitration in the event of a disagreement

• Avoid quick fixes – It’s not unusual to want to latch on to the fastest fix in a business negotiation; however, it’s best to take the time to make a careful decision

The next morning I called the new parking managers. I clearly and calmly described the situation and asked for a meeting to discuss the predicament.

And when I went to the meeting, I didn’t go alone, I brought along my own heavy hitter: the Town Mayor.

After presenting clear evidence that the contract wasn’t fair, we were able to renegotiate a more favorable deal.

Everyone shook hands and walked away from the table – and I also left with a valuable lesson about how to successfully handle a contract negotiation.

At the Program on Negotiation, we help professionals like you avoid unfavorable deals and negotiate beneficial agreements. Our popular new report – Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals – reveals ways to make the most of every deal you encounter:

• Promote creativity by breaking problems into smaller components; by doing so, you can build a multi-issue business negotiation out of what might appear to be a single-issue deal

• Use the multiple issues to make valuable tradeoffs and facilitate a good-faith negotiation

• Gain important information by asking lots of questions and listening carefully to the answers

• Impress the other side with your flexibility by putting forth several different proposals at the same time

• Consider unconventional deal-structuring arrangements to bridge the gap between what the seller wants and what the buyer can afford

• Explore a contingent contract to help overcome differences in beliefs about future events and outcomes

• Create even more value in business negotiations by adding conditions to your deal such as “I’ll do X if you do Y”

• Try mind games like brainstorming to facilitate creative problem solving and unexpected solutions

Don’t Make Another Bad Deal

In business, the stakes are too high and the consequences are too severe to allow a bad deal to pass your desk. Just think: what would you do if…

…A business negotiation reaches a seemingly impossible impasse

…There’s a large gap between what the seller wants and what the buyer can afford

…A single-issue contract negotiation turns out to contain multiple, differing issues

…Your counterpart seems inflexible, rigid, and unwilling to compromise

If you’re not sure how to handle each of these business negotiation challenges, then you need this free report.

Curated from several articles, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals contains the most important, most relevant information you need to negotiate the best outcomes for you and your company.

Build Trust with Even the Most Challenging Adversaries

As you’ll read in Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals, with the right good-faith negotiation strategies, you can build trust and make a favorable deal with just about anyone.

In this special, free report, you’ll discover:

• How to create an open exchange of information – even among parties with little reason to trust each other

• How to foster reciprocity by sharing information about your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA)

• Why sometimes the best way to get the information you need is just to ask

Ask and You Will Receive

Are you asking the right business negotiation questions? Consider these key questions that you may not have thought to ask:

• “Confidentially speaking, our former service provide wasn’t able to meet our strict deadlines. What methods would you use to make sure projects stay on track?”

• “We are speaking to a couple of other potential partners in the event that we can’t get this deal to work. Are you doing the same?”

• “We may be wiling to budge a bit. What would you be willing to give us in return?”

When you share information about your interests and alternatives, you encourage the other party to do the same. And studies show the benefits likely outweigh the costs. Research shows that negotiators tend to reciprocate:

• Concessions

• Threats

• Emotions

• Information

So if you’re negotiating in good faith, it’s likely that the same attitude will be returned to you. So don’t be hesitant to open up and ask those critical questions.

Start Making Better Business Deals

Written by some of the nation’s foremost experts in negotiation, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate a Better Business Deals gives you the tools you need to navigate even the stickiest business deals.

In business, effective negotiation strategies are critical. Get the information you need to succeed today by downloading this free special report.

Trust me – you’ll be glad you did.

Sincerely,

Gail Odeneal
Director of Marketing
Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

P.S. Are you making the most out of every single business negotiation?

Wonder no more and download your free copy of Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals.

Don’t wait for your competitors to read it first – download your complimentary copy right now!