“Increasing your negotiation skills is easy. All you have to know is how.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)
“Increase Your Negotiation Skills Advice
5 How To Ways To Win More”
People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.
If you increase your negotiation skills, you can achieve more significant outcomes in all aspects of your life. You already know that, right? So, if people want better results, why do they not learn negotiation techniques to achieve them?
If you want to increase your negotiation skills and win more of the exchanges you find yourself in, continue. You will gain insight into five negotiation techniques that will improve your negotiation abilities and assist you in becoming a better negotiator.
1. Be Attuned To Your Senses And Your Environment
At auctions, I have witnessed bidders bidding over the value of items at ridiculous monetary costs. They got caught up in the heat of the moment – the bidding process of the auction. They wanted to win at all costs. And they incurred just that, an outcome over-priced compared to the value of the item they won.
Bidders lost their sense of control – control of their mental attentiveness and actions. In their mind, what was occurring? The moment of the auction possessed them.
To increase your negotiation skills, create a plan for how you will engage in discussions before the negotiation. The plan’s components should include, what you want to achieve, the time and monetary cost you will commit to achieving it, and variables that may alter the mental perception that might cause you to become irrational with your actions. The more attuned you are to the triggers that might send you down a negotiation rabbit hole, the better you should become at controlling yourself in any environment.
2. Be Aware Of Your Commitment To Stay Engaged In The Negotiation
Time can be your ally or foe in a negotiation. In some situations, negotiators become so invested in the time they have committed that they sink more time into the talks; all they seek is an outcome. They do not realize that the more time one stays engaged in a negotiation, the more likely that person is to make concessions. Therein lies how a negotiator disadvantages themselves.
When you are negotiating, be aware of the time you have incurred. That means if you expect to be at one point in the talks, based on the time you have invested and are nowhere near, consider informing the other negotiator that you have to depart. To prevent staying engaged too long, create mile markers with off-ramps that signal when you should pause or exit the negotiation.
3. How To Increase Negotiation Leverage
Leverage is a negotiation facet that gives negotiators power. And knowing how to acquire it and when to use it will increase your negotiation skills.
So, how do you gather leverage in negotiation?
1. Seek others to join your efforts that have a similar desire to achieve the outcome you seek. Joining forces with like-minded ambitions will embolden your negotiation position.
2. Seek points in the negotiation when the opposition is at a low or weak point in the talks. When a negotiator feels weak, they may negotiate against themselves. That will enhance their perception of you being more potent, a form of leverage.
How To Use Leverage
1. Show the opposition the strength that opposes the other negotiator and what they will have to confront if they continue on the current path. The dire the picture, the stronger appearing will become the leverage you sway.
2. When the opposition is in a weakened negotiation position, either offer relief from the pressure by extending an avenue to reduce anxiety or intensify it by making more demands. In either case, you will progress the negotiation to your advantage.
4. Observe Negotiation Threats
Always be mindful of current and long-term dangers threatening your negotiation. Threats can manifest in many forms (i.e., threats to marshall future forces against you to alter your present position, the opposition becoming obstinate, etc.).
When you sense a threat, assess its impact on your proceedings. In some cases, a potential threat may not require attention. But if warranted, address its cause and possible solution.
Never become so ingrained in a negotiation that you overlook a challenge that might forestall progress or cause an impasse. The more threats you can avert, the greater your control over your discussions will be. And that is another way to increase your negotiation skills.
5. Reading Body Language To Increase Negotiation Skills
Reading body language lets a negotiator acquire insights into unspoken words and thoughts. Thus, that ability becomes essential to anyone that wishes to increase their negotiation skills. Observe these insights when assessing emitted body language signals.
1. Observe your opponent’s gestures before the official negotiation begins. That will become your base from which to compare future motions.
2. Note when body gestures become quickened or slower. That will indicate the opposition’s excitement or deliberation. Observe what occurred before the negotiator displayed their actions. That will be its source – something to address or be mindful of about where such thoughts may take the negotiation.
3. When you see or sense a gesture whose meaning you are unsure of, ask the other negotiator what it means. The more insight you gather via a negotiator’s body language, the more understanding you will have of their thoughts.
Reflection
There are more ways you can increase your negotiation skills. If you would like to know more ways to do so, please feel free to contact me. In the meantime, master the insights presented. They will put you in a stronger negotiation position, increase your negotiation skills and assist you in negotiating better. And everything will be right with the world.
Remember, you’re always negotiating!
Check out this offer to learn more about negotiating better and reading body language!
Listen to Greg’s podcasts at https://megaphone.link/CSN6318246585 Once there, double click on the episode you would like to hear.
After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com
To receive weekly free 5-minute sneak peeks into the brilliant techniques offered by Greg, click here
https://www.themasternegotiator.com/negotiation-speaker/ and sign up at the bottom of the page