Improve Your Negotiations With The 5 Golden Rules.   LEARN THEM

Create and Implement Negotiation Best Practices

In her Tuesday New York Times article, “So How’s It Going? ,” Jennifer Walzer states that she needed “to come up with a better way to track what happens in the office when I’m not there – and even when I am.” She then...

Reassess Your Leverage

If you’re in purchasing or procurement, how can you reduce your costs, increase your margins, and still ensure the quality of service required from your vendors? When your vendor contracts come up for renewal, bid out the contract and come up with several...

The Power in Numbers Ploy

In a Forbes.com article last week, Jerry Kennelly, a 30-year Silicon Valley veteran, described a negotiation he was involved in while at Inktomi, one of the first internet search engines, as follows: “There were two of us, and when we went into the room we faced...

To Compete or Problem-Solve?

A friend recently purchased a used car “as is” for around $5,000 from a dealer. About 45 days later the transmission tanked. Unfortunately, the problem appeared after the state “lemon law” warranty expired. My friend obtained several estimates...

List Your Information Needs

In her recent FT.com column, Memory doesn’t matter when you have the net, Lucy Kellaway humorously recounts recent memory lapses and multi-tasking failures. She considers several solutions, one of which is to make lists. When preparing for a significant...

Flipping a Coin

I don’t usually read Hollywood gossip stories but this headline from USA Today, “Kate Walsh, ex to divide assets by flipping a coin” caught my attention. Why? Because it illustrates what you can do when you just can’t find an objective standard...

Making Your Counterpart’s Plan B a Reality

Wal-Mart recently provided an example of how you can obtain a better deal by making your counterpart’s less attractive alternative, or Plan B, a reality. According to a recent CNNMoney.com article, Wal-Mart recently removed Arm & Hammer liquid laundry...

Tips for Using Independent Standards

In its Small Business Questions & Answers section, CNNMoney.com suggests one way to fairly set employee salaries is to rely on third-party salary surveys. Why? Because relying on independent standards, like a third-party salary survey, (1) gives you credibility,...

Hertz and Dollar Thrifty do the Standards Dance

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. recently announced its plans to buy Dollar Thrifty for $1.2 billion, about $41 per share.  Almost immediately, the standards dance began in the negotiation between Hertz and Dollar’s shareholders, which must approve the deal.  Yesterday, a...