Businesses have to undertake several negotiations on an everyday basis. Each deal requires some level of skill in negotiating. As a businessman, if you are not good at negotiation skills, then this can be an issue.
If you’re new to the business world, or you just want to increase your negotiating skills, we’ll help you out with some top tips below. Here are some of the most important things that you must take into account in order to get a better deal for business and make better profits:
1. Do your homework
This is the first. Nothing matters more than the preparation stage. It is better to be prepared beforehand, the better that you come prepared to the negotiating table, the better the deals will be that you will be able to secure.
Learn more about what the counter-party wants to achieve. This will help you to pitch an offer in a better manner. Knowing the needs and wants of the other party also enables you to put forward demands and concessions. It has a major impact on the overall process of negotiation. Try to make it a win-win for both parties, it’s like maths in a sense.
2. Focus on communication skills
Communication matters a lot in business negotiation. Even if you are an expert at planning a negotiation deal in written form, it is important to communicate the deal in an effective manner beforehand verbally. If you want to negotiate a better deal, then it is imperative to communicate in all possible ways. This includes verbal and non-verbal communication.
Make sure you have the right body language as well in order to keep the negotiation more effective.
3. Consider leverage
This is of immense importance. Leverage is essentially the power each party has in negotiation process. In a commercial negotiation, a party with more business power or market share has more leverage due to the psychological impact on the other party. Therefore you must use leverage to negotiate better deals.
When I was negotiating better prices for my window furnishing company, I used the fact that my supplier’s customer base had no online DIY websites as a part of their customer base. I had known that the sales I was doing, would not be taken by someone else if I was not there. So I used that as part of my leverage in brokering better prices. I told them I was going to switch suppliers if we could not agree on better pricing; this allowed me to be much more competitive.
4. Focus on interests
One of the basic mistakes that a lot of people commit is that they focus on positions rather than interests. Positional bargaining can result in a number of deadlocks. Parties make the tensions more intense between them if they solely focus on what their demands are. This often results into no deal. Instead, you should focus on what the interests of both parties are. This would make things more collaborative between each other. This does not only enable businesses to get a better deal but maintain good relationship as well.
Aaron is the director of several online companies including window blinds store My Direct Blinds, floor rugs online store Rugs Rugs Rugs, Ink & Printer website Ink and Printers, and a League of Legends service marketplace for ‘elo boosting’ called Eloboosta.com.