Negotiating Tips January 9, 2009

Negotiating During A Recession

Tips for Recession Negotiations:

Regardless of what other business skills you possess, economic times like this demand fine tuned negotiating skills. Today! Right Now! Review the negotiating tools you learned at your KARRASS seminar.

OK, so the economy is terrible. Don't panic! You've been trained to negotiate. Review the eight negotiating tips below. Don't wait and simply become a victim.

Are you being asked to reduce costs? Close more sales? Get a difficult project back on track? These are all negotiations.

Both you and your organization are facing challenges. Today's negotiations directly and immediately impact your business and perhaps your career. Negotiate your way through this temporary negative business climate.

Negotiating skills are critical to surviving this recession and emerging in a stronger and more competitive position. Use your negotiating skills to protect both yourself and your organization's interests.

What factors are critical to your business success? What can you negotiate to enhance these factors? What needs to be re-negotiated right now?

KARRASS has been teaching negotiating for over 40 years. We've seen tough recessions before, and so have our clients. Now is the time to apply what you learned from KARRASS.

Start by reviewing these key KARRASS negotiating principals:

1. Don't be afraid to negotiate. Remember to set your targets high--everyone has pressures.
2. Take time to learn about the other side. Understand their needs, time limits, constraints and willingness to compromise or concede. Their business environment has changed just like yours.
3. Do the planning necessary to produce a successful outcome (use the KARRASS planning guide in your seminar book).
4. Use the 'Devil's Advocate Procedure' -- your discovery process will help you anticipate the other side's arguments and tactics.
5. Negotiate 'In Depth' -- understand the organizational and personal elements involved--on both sides of the negotiation. Identify all the players.
6. Be skeptical about the facts, statistics, averages, and other data submitted by the other side to support their position. Don't be intimidated by this data--there is a reason they are presenting it in this format to you. It supports their position, not yours!
7. Don't be intimidated by status or authority. Do your homework and be confident in your abilities to support your positions.
8. Remember you really do have more power than you think you do. Analyze the limits to the other side's power--they can't use all the strength they might have. Current circumstances have altered their power. Can they really use your competition or competitive ideas? Focus on their pressures--not your pressures. Your KARRASS negotiating skills can serve you well in these tough economic times.

NEGOTIATE WISELY!