Don’t Cut to the Chase — Prepare for Your Negotiations A small business owner with a huge potential opportunity in a negotiation with a large company contacted me recently and asked how to respond to the company’s request that he make them an offer. He told me...
Let’s say you’re sitting at your desk Monday morning, your telephone rings, and it’s Jane, opposing counsel in one of your cases, calling to see if you might be interested in discussing the offer she e-mailed you last week. Because you’re mostly up-to-speed on it, you...
Keeping with the “Top Ten” theme from last week, here are my Top Ten Impasse-Breaking Strategies: 1. Get or share more information 2. Switch objective criteria 3. Prioritize needs and interests 4. Brainstorm options 5. Set deadlines 6. Temporarily put...
Why should you use objective criteria to support your moves or offers and concessions in a negotiation? Because we derive power and legitimacy from the perception that our standards and criteria are based on objective, independent factors. If our positions are based...
The Phoenix Coyotes professional hockey franchise is facing a bankruptcy court auction this week. One likely bidder is Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research In Motion (which makes the Blackberry). He wants to relocate the team to Ontario, a move opposed by the NHL. While...
In her Monday New York Times article, “Trying to Sell Your Business? Think Like a Buyer,” Barbara Taylor asks, “Why is it so difficult for business owners to put themselves in the shoes of a potential buyer?” One of the main reasons is the vast...
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...
In sophisticated negotiations, the parties will typically find the standards that favor their side and use their most favorable standards to independently justify the “fairness” of their positions. The parties will then negotiate over which standard represents the...
USA Today provides us with another great example of the standards dance – where opposing sides make their case as to why their standards are the “most fair.” In researching compensation differences between government employees and private sector employees, USA...
