Negotiating Tips, Negotiating in Life June 15, 2007

Negotiation Assumptions You Make

When in a negotiation, never trust your assumptions. They are likely to be as wrong as right.

If you are negotiating to sell something, be careful with your assumptions. Don't make assumptions like:

"She'll never pay that much"
"There's a lot of competition"
"He doesn't have enough money"
"They don't want to do business with us after the last mess-up"
"I'm sure we're not the low bidder."

Such assumptions can defeat you before you start negotiating; these assumptions lower your expectations; influence the outcome of the negotiation; and may, in fact, be dead wrong.
If you are buying something, your assumptions can:

* Cause you to make high offers when low ones are called for.
* Influence you to make low demands and quick concessions when opposite actions are warranted.
* Seduce you into believing deadlines when patience is by far the better course.
* Create potential hurdles that can move you in the wrong direction.

Don't fall in love with your assumptions. You need to check them out in the interchange of information that comes out of the process of negotiating. Your assumptions are neither right nor wrong until proven so.