Why Don’t Schools Teach Negotiation as a Critical Life Skill?
No one throughout their schooling career ever gets taught negotiation or broad-level communication skills. They’re not taught how to negotiate, have civil conversations, or advocate for their own needs. The conspiracy theorist in me questions why the school system is structured this way. Negotiation and conflict resolution should be a focus as early as possible in a child’s life. Why? Because conflict costs billions of dollars a year. Conflicts in... Read more
How to Build Leverage into Your Salary Negotiation
Victoria Pynchon is the founder and chief negotiator at “She Negotiates,” a consulting company that has helped hundreds of women negotiate compensation. Victoria helps her clients prepare a written strategic plan. Her strategic plan starts with market value. Why? Because most people don’t come to her before the interview. They have to ascertain a company’s interests during the negotiation process. She always starts with: What’s your market value? What’s the... Read more
How to Employ Cialdini’s Principles of Influence at the Right Time
Too many people start a sales conversation with scarcity instead of starting with the principle of liking or creating social proof. Should there be timing around some of the principles? In Brian Ahearn’s book, “Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents,” he looks at the sales process. He covers which principles are most effective at each point of the sales process. So what could—or should—you start with? Authority, likability, and... Read more
How to Overcome Your Fear of Negotiation
Lynn Price is the author of “Negotiate It!: How to Crush Your Fears, Develop Your Negotiation Muscle, and Gain Power in the Workplace.” She was in-house counsel for 20+ years for Telecom and the Engineering and Construction industry. She’s negotiated well over 11,000 agreements. Currently, Lynn is a trainer and consultant in negotiation. Her focus is training people to use her 3 R formula to dramatically improve their negotiating skills.... Read more
How to Communicate Your Value in a Negotiation
People don’t always appreciate your value. They need to know why they should deal with you. So you must position yourself, so you feel legitimate. Deborah Kolb likes to tell people, “Performance doesn’t speak for itself. You’re doing a great job and nobody knows.” It’s up to you to negotiate and communicate your value. Deborah knew the VP of Business Development in a financial services company. She and her husband... Read more
How to Discover Your Values [Put The Conscience Code into Action]
Richard Shell believes that you have to know yourself to know your values. And unfortunately, many people aren’t clear on what their values actually are. How do you discover that? One of Richard’s favorite pastimes is creating self-assessments. In his book, “Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success,” he shares an exercise called “The 6 Lives” to help people to try to figure out their priorities when it comes to... Read more
Don’t Forget “Pathos” as a Negotiation Tactic
In his book, “Negotiation Hacks: Expert Tactics To Get What You Want,” Simon Rycraft talks about some of Aristotle’s principles of persuasion. What are those three principles? Pathos: Pathos is the application of emotion. People who are more passionate can be more persuasive, right? When someone gets excited, it prods on your emotions and will often get you excited. Ethos: Ethos refers to your reputation. If you’ve worked with someone before and... Read more
How to Operationalize and Manage Labor-Based Contract
Let’s say you’re a procurement professional working to manage spend for labor contracts. You’ve broken down the hours, and you even understand the allocation of cost. You’ve done your homework to make sure money isn’t being hidden. Everything looks good, so you get a contract in place. The problem is—even if you’ve done it all on the front end—managing a labor-based contract at a site-based level is a significant nuisance.... Read more
SLAY: Rebecca Zung’s Formula For Negotiating with Narcissists
Rebecca Zung has become popular in the world of negotiation because of her expertise in negotiating with narcissists. She runs both a YouTube channel and a podcast with the goal of teaching people how to negotiate with narcissists. In a recent episode of Negotiations Ninja, she shared the basics of her “SLAY” formula. How to SLAY your negotiation with a narcissist It’s estimated that 1 in 10 people have either... Read more
How to Delegate Effectively
Dr. Mark Goulston recently took part in an interview about delegating effectively. So what does Dr. Goulston believe is the best way to delegate? He once heard a Senior Sales Manager with State Farm talk about a great approach, which he also advises. He notes that when you delegate something to someone, afterward, you don’t say, “Do you understand what I asked?” You say, “What do you understand that I... Read more