Resources
We hope that business negotiators find what they're searching for in our free resources. This is the next best thing to coming to one of our negotiation training courses.
Where Will You Draw The Line in Negotiations?
Probably everyone has seen some version of the tousled haired child, daring anyone to cross a line he has drawn in the sand. We use words to sketch imaginary lines to warn of an imaginary red flag boundary where we will not be pushed any further. Tolerance limits appear and are applied everywhere in our daily lives. From borders to production expectations, from curfews when we were hormone driven teens, to how much we are willing to pay for a used auto. We set limits to add definition
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Collective Bargaining
A negotiation process that occurs between employers (or their representatives) and the representatives of a union to negotiate issues that consists of wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment. Normally results in a written contract that is defined by specific time duration – ‘life of the contract’. Doesn't necessarily comprise of bargaining as the name suggests. Learn more about Collective Bargaining
Using a Business Interpreter
"It must have got lost in the translation." This lame excuse is not something an international business negotiator wants to use when an important deal collapses. They also don't want to have an angry CEO, with beet-red face, waving a lawsuit from their foreign counterpart, and demanding to know what happened. We conduct many of our hard-won international deals in English, which is commonly viewed as the international business language. However, many negotiations require
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Negotiation Coalition
A temporary union between two or more individuals or groups for a common aim or goal. A relatively common practice utilized in multi-party negotiations, used to gain advantage in the negotiation. Coalitions are more common when negotiators' stand to gain more through collaboration than through competing.
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The Unethical Side of Negotiation
'The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple' - Oscar Wilde Welcome to the dark side! We are about to open the proverbial can of worms. This is not going to be a moralising sermon, but you are going to be asked to look inside and find out where you stand. It's unlikely you lived thus far without being 'taken for a ride', or duped by someone. Who has made it this far in life life without telling a lie? Even if it's only one of those little 'white lies', which many people accept as
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BATNA
BATNA is an acronym popularised by Roger Fisher and William Ury which stands for 'Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement'. BATNA answers the question: 'What would you do if you weren't able to agree a deal with your negotiation counterparty?' Your BATNA is the alternative action you'll take should your proposed agreement fail to materialize. Most business people simply use the phrase: 'Best Alternative'. Your BATNA options typically include: finding another counterparty
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Negotiating with 8 golden steps, the agreement table
People never plan to fail, but they often fail to plan. This is a sensible and shrewd maxim that has dogged many business owners through the ages. It's the prime reason why so many intrepid enterprises fail so miserably, despite the determined efforts of their proud owners. A grand idea had illuminated their hopes, and they thought or assumed they couldn't fail. They crashed into stark reality when their ledgers bled the color red, and consequently, the life of their business
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Counter Purchase
An arrangement where one company (the seller), agrees to sell products or services to a foreign purchaser, but also simultaneously agrees to purchase specified products or services from the foreign partner. Also known as parallel bartering and is the most commonly used form in a countertrade agreement in international business interactions.
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Negotiation Approaches and Perspectives
'It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly' Anatole France The worst mistakes are the ones we know we should've avoided in the first place. Yet, we will occasionally err because we are infallibly human. The best thing we can do is to try and recognise those errors that are most avoidable. When sitting down at the negotiating table, it might be a good idea to get ourselves into the habit of going through a mental checklist. This is the time to lean back and take a reality check.
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Negotiation Bargaining Zone
Your Bargaining Zone is the range or area in which an agreement is satisfactory to both negotiating parties. The bargaining zone is essentially the overlap area between walk away positions in a negotiation. Before entering into a negotiation, it's essential that you reduce your risk by deciding not only your walk-aways for each goal or negotiable, but and also predicting other negotiators' walk-aways too. Clients on our negotiation training courses often push back saying:
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Negotiation Anxiety Solved
Who We Are In both our personal and professional lives, we all have our own unique style. This is also true when dealing with problem-solving, dispute resolutions, and negotiations. Our individual personalities were formed early in childhood, tempered and sculpted by a lifetime of coping with the anxiety-provoking raw experience of life. Every situation that we face acts as a teaching aid. We learn to adapt our own unique style in tackling any future problems that lurk down
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Aspiration Base
Setting the highest achievable negotiation target level in terms of goals or objectives to conclude a negotiated agreement.
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How to Behave in Japan: Appropriate Japanese Behaviour
"WHEN IN JAPAN, BEHAVE AS THE JAPANESE DO." IS THAT REALLY BEING CULTURALLY INTELLIGENT? Deciding on the right nuance of culturally appropriate behavior in Japan is not easy. I used to work with Colorado-born Fred Hevers in Tokyo. He spoke astonishingly fluent Japanese, much better than mine. Impertinent though it was of me, I once suggested to him that he was far too polite when he spoke to many Japanese. He took it well, and seemed to ponder it. We both moved on to other jobs. When
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Arbitration
A process to resolve a dispute between negotiating parties who have reached a deadlock in their negotiation. The parties in dispute are referred to a ‘third party’, which is one that is either agreed upon by the parties in dispute, or as provided by legislated law. The third party renders a judgement that is binding on the parties in dispute. Arbitration is often used in international negotiations and in collective bargaining.
ZOPA Negotiation (the Zone Of Possible Agreement)
What Does ZOPA Stand For? ZOPA might almost sound like a foreign word for a cheer of joy, or maybe even a new and exciting soft drink about to splash the marketplace. It's neither, but if you have a wide ZOPA in your negotiation, it's nearly as sweet. Negotiation ZOPA stands for Zone Of Possible Agreement. It's the blue sky range where we can make deals that both sides in a negotiation find acceptable. Whether we're buying something at a bustling yard sale or entering into a complex
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Negotiation Anchoring
Anchoring is an attempt to establish a reference point (anchor) around which a negotiation will revolve. The anchor will often be used as a reference point to make negotiation adjustments. Anchoring often occurs when the first offer is presented at the beginning of a negotiation.
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Avoiding Common Pitfalls during Negotiations in China
Western business people are flocking to the Far East. China has clearly become one of the most sought after places that offer a near endless source of potential market growth. For many westerners, the eastern part of the world is a place steeped in mystery and a culture, both alien and fascinating to our way of doing things. China is a vast potential marketplace of over a billion plus potential. Millionaires spring up like weeds virtually overnight, while millions of peasants
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Negotiation Bargaining
What is bargaining? Bargaining is a simple form of the distributive negotiation process that is both competitive and positional. Meaning bargaining doesn't seek to create value but instead focuses on negotiators claiming value. Bargaining very often revolves around a single issue—usually price. Bargaining predominates in one-time negotiations, e.g. buying or selling a car or house when you don't intend on having an ongoing relationship. One side usually attempts
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Knowing When It's Time to Walk-Not Talk
"A long dispute means both parties are wrong." Voltaire Knowing when and how to negotiate is one thing. Knowing when not to negotiate at all, is an altogether different matter. Every savvy negotiator is aware that there are times to break off the talks for now, in order to enhance the talks later. Reasons could include a cooling off process or to re-evaluate new information. However, there are other thorny conditions which can crop up when the circumstances compel you to not negotiate
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Winners Curse
Occurs when an under aspiring negotiator sets their target or aspirations (goals or objectives) too low at the outset of a negotiation and is granted an immediate agreement by their negotiating counterpart.
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