Negotiating in Life, Planning for Negotiations April 25, 2010

Data, data everywhere

The old saying that knowledge is power is especially true in negotiations.

Before going into any type of business or personal negotiation you need data and other information. If you are negotiating your salary, you should know what someone in your position gets paid. If you are buying a house, you must know what comparable sales are in the neighborhood. If you are entering a business negotiation, you should have information on competitors, prices, etc.

Fortunately, in the Internet Age, plenty of data can be accessed online. There are free and paid databases, government websites and many more places to do research. Local courthouses and libraries are repositories for public records. Search engines are invaluable in locating information about a particular subject or company.

Some of the information you can find includes:

Public records

• Mortgages
• Liens
• Legal judgments
• Contract awards
• Taxes
• Property costs

Financial and company data

• Stockholder reports
• Company information aggregators such as Dun & Bradstreet, Hoover’s http://www.hoovers.com/
• Company annual reports

News articles from newspapers, periodicals and company newsletters

Specialized information is available for other sources including:

Salary data: http://www.salary.com/ 

Census data: http://www.census.gov/

Pew Research Center for trend data and other numbers: http://www.pewresearch.org/

Where do you go for information?