What are the key factors in negotiation?

Whether you are trying to win a major contract, get a new project off the ground, secure a loan from a bank or even just get an extra day added on to your holidays, negotiating is a key feature of working life.  You will need negotiating skills whatever your job or role is.

While every negotiating situation is different, there are some things that should always be taken into account.

•Your own personal style

Consider not just how you perceive yourself to be, but also how you are perceived by others. How do other people think you come across? Do you appear to be calm and reasonable?  Or does it often look like you are aggressive and pushy?  Do you perhaps even seem to be reticent or shifty?  Often, how you think you appear is not the same as how others perceive you.  This can be crucial in a negotiating situation, where your first objective is to establish trust and openness with your negotiating partner.  Ask other friends and colleagues to give you honest feedback about how you appear in meetings and negotiating situations.

Think carefully about your body language if the negotiation is to be done face to face.  Take the arrangement of the room into consideration.  Face to face across a desk can often be seen as confrontational.  If you sit alongside your partner, however, the atmosphere immediately becomes one of working together to resolve a shared problem.

•Your company style.  

How does your company wish to present itself?  Is it an old-style formal company, or a company anxious to present itself as being youthful, energetic, dynamic and informal?  

•The culture you are working in

This is a crucial element, and one that is often underestimated.  Different countries and different cultures have different ways of conducting negotiations.  If you are working in a culture that you do not know very well, or having to negotiate with someone from a culture different to your own, make sure you inform yourself about the possible differences to expect. Think especially about such factors as physical contact, physical distance, eye contact.  Are you expecting a decision to be taken at the negotiating table, or will the decision be made afterwards?  European, American, African, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures all have very different attitudes to and methods of negotiating.  

•Your partner

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you should anticipate the style and culture of your negotiating partner.  Think of all the things that are important to think of for yourself, then try to apply them to your partner.  What does s/he expect from the negotiation?  What kind of style does s/he have, or will s/he try to adopt?

“Partner” is the crucial word here.  If you see the person or group you are negotiating with as a block to what you want, as a mere source for your wishes, as the “opposition”, or worse, as an “enemy” in some way, then you are already in a losing position.

If you treat the other party as a partner, you will automatically be heading for a win-win situation. You will be convincing your negotiating partner that what is best for you is best for them too.  Your job, therefore, becomes not just to get something that you want, but to do the best thing for the partner as well.

•Negotiating strategies

Some people prefer to have a range of options, including “sacrificial lambs” – things they will start by asking for, but then be prepared to give up in an attempt to seem conciliatory.  

Other people prefer to have one single point, and hammer away at it, insisting on the point they want without letting other issues cloud the argument. Research has shown that this second approach often tends to be more successful.

A final point:  before you enter negotiations, accept that you may not get everything you want, but stabilise a minimum benchmark of what you are prepared to accept.  You should never go below this leve

I have been a Buyer for many years for Africa's largest retailer and I have always valued and respected sales managers with genuine customer service , customer care, knowledge of their product and competitors product, punctual and respectful of their commitments. 

The process of negotiations is an art and involves use of commercial muscles by all those involved. The key factors to be taken care of during this process are:

1. Our objectives
2. Other party's expectations
3. Our strenghts and weaknesses
4. Other party's strength and weaknesses
5. Our limits beyond which we may not accept the result of negiotiations
6. Other party's limits beyond which it will walk out of negotiations
7. Other party's anticipated behaviour

Negotiation is a process involving dealings among persons, which are intended to result in an agreement, and commitment to a course of action.

Negotiation may be:

• between two parties (bilateral); or
• among several parties (multilateral).

Negotiation comprises a series of communications between or among the parties. These may occur in one or more:

• meetings (same-time/same-place communications);
• remote meetings supported by telephone, video-conference or workstations (same-time/different-place communications); and/or
• asynchronous communications supported by recorded voice-messages, fax, letter or email (different-time communications).

Each of the parties who participate in negotiation may be a principal, or an agent for a human principal or for a legal entity such as a corporation.

Negotiation may be straightforward and quick, if the wishes of all parties are satisfied by the first proposal put by one of them.

Where the wishes of all parties are not satisfied by the first proposal, discussions are likely to lead to variations to it, or the creation of counter-proposals. This process will generally be quicker if the parties provide information to one another about their wishes.

In some cases, it is possible for a proposal to be generated which satisfies the needs of all parties. This is commonly referred to as a collaborative process leading to a 'win-win'situation.

In other circumstances, one or more parties may have to accept less than they wished for when they entered the negotiation, i.e. to compromise their objectives in the interests of reaching an agreement. Such an environment involves some degree of competition among the parties.

In some circumstances, the fulfilment of the wishes of one party may be directly detrimental to the fulfilment of the wishes of another party, e.g. in bargaining over the price of goods or services. This is referred to as a 'win-lose' situation (in the language of salesmen), or a 'zero-sum game' (in the context of operations research and game theory).

During negotiations, the parties may reach a 'stand-off', whereby no commonly acceptable point along a single dimension (such as price) can be found, or a 'dead-lock', whereby the parties' demands on one another are mutually unacceptable along several different dimensions.

Pre-Conditions for a Successful Negotiation

• a set of parties who are, or at least may be, capable of satisfying one another's needs
• knowledge by the parties of one another's existence
• interest by the parties in achieving an outcome
• interest by the parties in entering into negotiations
• adequate mutual recognition and respect among the parties
• a basis for communication among the parties, including:
  • shared language
  • the ability to meet together
  • the availability of infrastructure to support communications over time and space
• power of the parties to commit, or arrange the commitment of, the principals
• power of the parties to deliver on the commitment

Major Factors in Negotiation Strategy

Power, i.e. the ability to exercise control

• having options, i.e. not wanting any particular outcome too much
• other parties not having options
• precedent and legitimacy
• expertise and judgement in the area
• confidence / credibility / comfort / persistence
• persuasive capacity

Time

• the urgency for each party to achieve a result

Information

• the wishes of each party
• the urgency for each party to achieve a result
• the cue clusters emanating from each party
• the pattern of concessions behaviour of each party

Negotiation is the series of communication and sharing information by which two or more parties try to clear the differences and come to a mutual agreement which creates a win-win situation for all.

Negotiation is the agreement where both the team should win.

There are three critical factors for every negotiation:

- Power

- Information

- Time

Answers here on this question is very valuable

Getting in negotiation is like going to war need your gear, skills and confident

You need to consider

Objective: what do you need, why and how far you are willing to go and sacrifice for it, what's your weakness and strength same with the other party answer these questions before the negotiation

Power: who have the upper hand in the negotiation and why is it you ? so think of how to use that to get as much as you can out of the negotiation if it's in the other party hand then think how far you willing to go. and how make the party don't push with their power over you.

Time: is very important how fast you and the party want it. whatever what you negotiate for, now if you want it so bad you will need to think of strategy to get it and still be in win situation, if the other party want it then push as far as you can to win more without letting the party reach their limits and leave the negotiation.

After you know the previouse points time for the Plan

How to approch, how to add pressure on the party, what to do in situation A,B,C,D

think what the other party may say and get your answer ready always before ahead.

now you are ready to negotiate and win.

-Offer

-Counter offer

-Concession

-Compromise

-Agreement

Thank you all for your valuable comments.. Can you please share me any of your real time experience a win win situation negotiating with a supplier ..??