Improve Your Negotiations With The 5 Golden Rules.   LEARN THEM

Precedent Power

NBA Commissioner Daniel Stern, discussing the on-going negotiation between the NBA owners and players’ association, recently pointed out that, “The NFL, which is usually profitable as opposed to the NBA, which isn’t, got [a] double-digit [revenue] reduction from their...

Decision Fatigue and Negotiation

New York Times science columnist John Tierney recently wrote: The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become...

Avoiding Tough Questions

What should you do if your counterpart asks you a tough question about strategically important information you don’t want to share, like what’s your bottom line or authority?  I would never recommend lying – it’s morally wrong and you will be far less effective if you...

ConAgra: Talk or We Walk

The Street reported today that ConAgra told Ralcorp it would “walk away from its $5.2 billion takeover bid” if Ralcorp doesn’t agree to begin negotiating by September 19th. The threat of a walkout is a tactic usually used for one or more of the following reasons: 1)...

The UAW and Chrysler do the “Standards Dance”

A Huffington Post Business article about contract talks between the United Auto Workers and Chrysler and Ford mentioned that the union had already reached a deal with General Motors which would serve as “a template for the other two companies.” This is a great example...

Splitting the Difference

The NBA owners and players are at impasse in their current collective bargaining negotiation.  The last formal proposals had the players seeking 53 percent of NBA revenues with the owners offering 47 percent.  It was reported today that Commissioner David Stern...

Learn from the Mistakes of Others

In a New York Times post about the success of recent high-profile entrepreneurs at retaining equity in their companies, Steven Davidoff concludes “[t]hese entrepreneurs appear more savvy than earlier Internet moguls, but their success owes thanks in large part to an...

Discover Fundamental Interests

In a recent Business Insider article, the author summarizes a recent Gartner talk as follows: The four big software vendors – Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and SAP – have hidden motives that customers need to understand, otherwise they might be pushed into buying...

Black Friday and Social Proof

The shopping madness exhibited on Black Friday is a great example of the power of social proof.  Social proof is the psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation. Retailers have obviously exploited...