I wrote a column in 2011 entitled “In Person Talks Often Best Option” for The Arizona Republic. Given the timeliness of this subject as many CFOs and others contemplate the money saved with employees Zooming from home and staying away from airports, I thought I would...
Jane was dressed smartly and professionally, with an obviously expensive dark blue business suit and a brown leather briefcase. She walked purposefully into the room, surveyed it, sat down, placed her briefcase on the table. She took out a pad of paper, some neatly...
A client recently asked for negotiation advice about selling his business. He’s in his 40s and has been growing his business for about 15 years. He started as its marketing guru, progressed to an ownership share and took over its helm when its founders decided to...
She wouldn’t budge. Despite our concerted efforts to illustrate the unreasonableness of her position, she had dug in her heels. Or so we were told. The negotiation? The purchase of a house. The participants? The seller, the seller’s real estate agent, the potential...
Let’s say I want to buy the house at 123 Negotiation Lane and it’s listed at $300,000. I do my research, analyze comparable sales in the neighborhood, find out its length on the market, evaluate its renovations and conclude it’s worth $290,000. Figuring I’ll pay...
“The thing I always try to keep in mind in any negotiation is to know what I want at the end of it. And I always make a practice of writing it down – what is victory for me? And then I set up a series of stages, as the negotiations unfold, and I always [try] to...
A client recently sent me a list of negotiation “games” its counterparts regularly use. The list ranged from lying about certain facts to falsely pretending not to understand critical issues. After we discussed how to counter these “games,” my client asked me which I...
“How can I make sure my counterpart walks away from the table feeling good about our deal,” a lawyer from one of the world’s largest corporations recently asked me. “I want to get the best deal, but I don’t want to harm the relationship...
“What should we do when our clients ask for discounts on our fees? We believe our fees are reasonable, and our clients agreed to them at the beginning of our engagement. But we also value our future relationship and don’t want our clients to feel unappreciated or that...
