Wouldn’t it be great if you could accurately assess whether your counterpart was lying when they said “I have an offer from XYZ Co. that is 10 percent greater than yours, so you will have to put more on the table if you want this deal?” It sure would be nice to...
“This negotiation is a marathon. It’s going to take a long time to achieve our goal, and it will be tough. Some of our steps might even be painful. But we must be persistent and focus on what we want to achieve long-term.” When was the last time you...
We were sitting on a Boeing 767 at Sky Harbor International Airport around 4 p.m., waiting for a United Airlines flight to leave for Chicago, when a flight attendant told us our weather-delayed 2:31 p.m. flight would experience even more delay because of a scheduling...
I recently met Richard McWilliam, the long-time Chairman of Upper Deck, the worldwide sports and entertainment company that revolutionized the sports trading card business. Since McWilliam constantly negotiates with sports agents and icons such as Michael Jordan and...
In 1955, Sony’s leader, Akio Morita, turned down an order for 100,000 of its $29.95 transistor radios. This deal was worth several times Sony’s working capital at the time and would have been its biggest deal ever. Morita called his turn-down the “best decision” he...
“I believe in short-term wins and long-term relationships,” a successful executive told me during a recent negotiation in which we had two paths open to us: focusing on a longer-term deal with many complex moving parts, or proceeding with a smaller deal...
Major League Baseball All Star pitcher Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels last August admittedly left millions of dollars on the table when he passed up free agency and signed an $85 million five-year deal with the Angels. In announcing the deal, he said “Could...
A successful business colleague recently lost a seven figure deal due to being 1% more expensive than a competitor. That’s $20,000 on a $2 million deal. My colleague was obviously disappointed. But critically, he was searching for lessons he could learn from that...
“Let me suggest a few options – each of which would be acceptable to us,” I said to the furniture store manager. “Either provide us with 80 percent of our money back for the practically unused piece of furniture we purchased, or give us a credit – to be used in your...
“What’s the single-biggest mistake most individuals make in their negotiations?” a seminar participant once asked me. “And what can they do about it?” The biggest mistake? Most individuals negotiate instinctively, not strategically. Assume you’ve always wanted to own...
I recently decided to hire a publicist to help with the publicity for my first book. While my publisher assigned its own publicist, my agent recommended that I also hire a publicist to augment its efforts. Since almost every businessperson has undertaken negotiations...
“I left a fortune on the table because I went against my instincts in that negotiation,” a highly successful businessman and real estate developer told me recently. “Yet I know it’s critical to negotiate strategically and not just rely on your...
