“Killer Insights That Will Make You A Better Negotiator” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

There are factors that determine the degree of success you’ll have in a #negotiation. Those factors are what will also make you a good #negotiator or one that’s significantly better. The following are a few of those #killer #insights and how to use them to your advantage in a negotiation. Using them will ensure that you have a #better negotiation outcome.

Negotiation Environment:

Where you negotiate can have hidden advantages for the person controlling that environment. But there are also ways to control an environment that you’re not in control of.

  1. Your environment – When you control the environment, you can control the temperature, lighting, and other creature features that would make one more comfortable while negotiating. If the negotiation becomes tense, you can increase or lower the temperature in the environment to coincide with the adjustments you want the other negotiator to make (e.g. he gets heated, you turn the room temperature up or down to make him hotter or colder).
  2. Not your environment – When you don’t have control of the environment, if things become intense, you can offer to change venues. If it’s accepted, you will gain the advantage of not being in the environment that the other negotiator controlled. Plus, he will have allowed you to take the lead simply by his acquiesces.

Negotiation Positioning:

The way you position yourself before a negotiation determines how someone perceives you – it will also play an important role in the way you’re treated. If you position yourself as a tough guy, a tough guy negotiator type may treat you harshly – that’s his form of protecting against you perceiving him as being weak. If you position yourself as being weak, the tough guy may attempt to take advantage of you, while the weak type of negotiator may become emboldened to become more aggressive.

For the best positioning, consider the negotiation style (e.g. hard, soft, meek, bully) that your opponent may use – and assess which negotiation style you should adopt to offset any advantages he might gain from negotiating in that manner.

Negotiation Strategies:

Control – You command a negotiation by the degree of control you exercise. When appropriate, you can give the impression that you’re led by the other negotiator – you might wish to do that to gain insights into where he’ll take you with his control. You might also do it to put him at ease – less powerful negotiators become fearful when they sense they’re up against a more knowledgeable negotiator – letting him lead will allay his fears of being dominated by you.

Offers – Some negotiators will insist on getting a concession for everyone they make. You don’t have to do that. Depending on the negotiator type you’re negotiating with, consider saving the chits you gain from making concessions and using them in a combined force (e.g. I’ve given you this and that and I’ve not asked for anything. Will you please give me this?) – Accumulating concessions in this manner and calling in the chits earned from them can become a very strong persuader for the other negotiator to make concessions. Just be sure not to grant too many of them before making your request. The more concessions you make without getting a return, the more likely it becomes that they will lose their full value.

No matter the type of negotiation you’re going to be in or find yourself in, using the above insights will improve your negotiation abilities. And, it will improve your negotiation outcomes. So, always be mindful of how and when you use them… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

Simple Business Powerpoint Presentation Tips

People presumes that making Powerpoint presentations are very time consuming. If you are given a task of presenting data to your employer or your clients – who are your audiences, you need to work fast to prepare your presentation including compiling all important data into your presentation. There are several ways to organize these data which audiences find it easy to understand. It is crucial when especially you want to close your sales or give a business proposal, or even look for business solutions that meets clients’ needs.

Before you start making one presentation, you should summarized all the related information before you deliver it to your audiences. Remember, simplicity is the main rule of effective presentation. Please use simple slide designs to avoid create confusion among audiences. You can even use plain white background for your slides. Avoid complicated slide designs that could distract your audiences’ attention.

Therefore, you can only include related graphics on your Powerpoint presentations. If you are promoting a product, then you should include pictures of the products. Cleverly arrange the pictures on your slides so that you can capture audiences’ attention. For example, i prefer to put one product picture in one slide to allow clients to experience and discover the product visually.

One of the main reason your clients buy your products because they have the clear view of the potential of your products. You may include few words for the product description on your slides but I prefer to put two-to-three short lines to describe the products. Make sure the text-contents fonts and colors match the background picture.

You can use animation effects to enhance your presentation especially during the appearance of the text-contents and pictures. Normally, I use “Dissolve In” or “Ascend” animation effects for the text-contents and pictures to appear.

Concurrently, charts and graphs are included in these business presentations. You can have mixtures of text and content layouts in your presentation slides. I suggest that you do not mix bullet-texts with chats and graphs together. For example, insert three dimensional charts and graphs to show your annual profits to your employer. If you are using bar graphs, maximize the use of color effects in every bar graphs. Most business presenters use primary colors in their graphs. If you are using plain white backgrounds for your presentation, dark colored charts and graphs are chosen as the foreground objects of the slide presentation.

Social Networking Vs Face to Face Presentation

There is a lot of debate these days about the effectiveness of social media. Indeed what prompted me to write this article, was a question posed along the lines of – which was most effective social media or face to face presentation.

If you want to sell – you need to be in front of qualified prospects. This is where so many businesses fail.

Do not confuse activity and results. We all know Pareto’s Law 80 / 20, that is only 20 per cent of effort produces 80 per cent of the results. Dabbling away at social media may feel like an effective promotion of business, but when you read the rest of the banal comments about “don’t know whether to have pizza or Chinese tonight” you can’t help but wonder is that the best place to try and promote your business.

Would you wade through all the tweets to find a plumber if you had a burst pipe in the house. You may be well advised to go to a business networking site to satisfy the need, but a social networking site – I don’t think so!

Prospect – qualify – close. Yes you can use social networking to prospect, but you can also waste a lot of time. No matter how much people like you, if they don’t have a need for your service or product, then they aren’t going to give you their hard earned cash.

A lot of social networking is a bit like the business equivalent of, flirting – but never asking for a date.