Negotiating Skills Communicate Better

Writen by Eric Jones

A negotiator needs to be a skilled communicator. His role is to deliver and receive information. If negotiating is an art then communicating is like the practice of architecture.

Learning to emphasize or reinforce what you are saying through your body language and demeanor improves your communication. Actors practice or rehearse their lines in front of mirrors to get their entire persona to deliver the "feeling" as well as the line. Attorneys preparing opening and closing arguments do the same thing. Prepare, review, and practice for a meeting until you have mastered the subject matter, know your objectives, and are confident to field issues as they are presented. You want to be able to control and direct the conversation; not be subject to the control of another person.

To be able to communicate your thoughts to another person you need to be organized, knowledgeable and prepared. Being prepared is the first step to good communications. Taking responsibility for communicating your position is the second. People seldom change their minds when being lectured. If they are not mentally preparing their response to you they are likely thinking of the upcoming evening's activities; they are not on fully focused on what you are saying. Your challenge is to break through and help them actually hear and understand what you are saying.

The third step to good communications is to listen well. Get rid of your bad listening habits. Our minds continue to process other things while we are listening. Because of this, we are apt to be subconsciously trying to frame a response to the last point made, figure the odds on the baseball game this evening, concocting a strategy to get a raise at work and worrying about last night's fight at home; all the while also listening to the other person making a point. With all this concurrent activity, actually hearing what is being said is at best difficult.

Hearing the subtle nuances within the context of the remarks is next to impossible. It is the context of the remarks, the non-verbal signs sent while speaking, the subtle inflections that give color and depth to the remarks. You have to be attuned to capturing these embellishments if you are to learn from what the other person is saying.

Everyone should always strive for improved communication skills. It is very difficult to forge an accord when one or both of the parties are not hearing and understanding the other. As an informal, small group leader, focus first on opening clear channels of communication.

The author is an assistant editor at How-to-Negotiate.com, a site featuring articles about interpersonal communication skills required in the dispute settlement process and how people negotiate everything in their daily lives be it personal issues, parenting matters, social conflicts, or business or work related challenges. The site promotes the fact that conflict is a natural aspect of everyone's life and we should all work at improving our ability to negotiate the curves life throws our way.

Royalties On Patents And Audit Rights

Writen by Lance Winslow

Many inventors come up with a great idea and wish to sell this idea to another company in trade for royalties for use of their patent. This makes sense because the inventor does not have to start his own company and go thru all the risks to build the device and can sit back in his home workshop and come up with his next invention or innovation. Often these inventors when making an agreement do not put in the contract that they want audit rights to the company's books which will be mass producing and bringing to market this innovative invention that they thought of.

Recently I was asked by a think tanker; "I need more insight on the audit rights you talked about?"

Well if this company starts selling your invention, how will you know how many they sold? So how can you tell if they are being honest with you about the amount of royalties (per unit sold) monies you will receive? If they are giving you per unit stipend then you would need to be sure that they told you of "ALL" actual sales, whether they were from the Internet, mail order, infomercial or in retail stores.

You see the music industry does similar things to make sure the artists get paid. So does the insurance industry as many times the risk is gauged by the amount of gross income for exposure calculations. If the totals are in error or misrepresents then the artist, insurance company or you the inventor gets ripped off. This is why I advice that you put into your contracts when selling your idea, simple audit rights so you get paid what they agreed too. Think on this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Business Negotiation Be Careful If You Win Too Much

Writen by Lance Winslow

One of the worst things I have discovered in Business Negotiation is that so often one party will over sell leaving very little on the table for the other party. Sure you shake hands and look them in the eyes when completed but you wonder if they can perform or if they have over promised? Will they deliver on that promise or will they fall short and then what?

No one has time to waste in the courtroom and so often that is where lopsided deals end up. That makes no sense when you have a business to run. We see this most often when negotiating with salesmen or foreign-born thinking folks who are not so into the Western World's win/win scenarios.

It has always been my observation that in a win/lose negotiation that more time will need to be spent in the future to offset the problems created by sacrificing the other party in order to take everything off the table for your company leaving them nothing but crumbs. Negotiating from a win/win perspective makes sense and so in Business Negotiation it behooves each side to be careful if you win too much or aggressively grind on the other party to the point they get nothing.

Because if you truly need performance for your operation from the other party and they cannot afford to fulfill their end of the deal, well everyone loses in the end and you could be put in a position of scrambling to make things happen and end up in court with the defaulting party. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Negotiation Tip Ask The Chef To Create Something New Just For You

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Most of us are too uncreative when we negotiate in business.

Typically, we hear a proposal and immediately think, "Gee, if I want to keep this discussion going, I need to counter this with something reasonably close to the offer I'm hearing."

Wrong, totally, utterly, wrong!

I recall doing some business in my hometown, Chicago, and I was feeling feisty at a certain continental restaurant. The waiter came by, and I said:

"I know your chef is good, but I don't see anything on the menu that excites me, so would you please ask him to whip something up, and surprise me with it?"

After probing a little, to hear if I like fish, meat, or fowl, the waiter disappeared, and during the next two hours I was treated to a succession of delicious, and quite original dishes.

It wasn't cheap, but it was exciting!

Having an off-the-menu-experience is cool, not only in restaurants, but in negotiations.

Let's say you're on a job interview, you like the company, but hate the position.

Tell them, "I'd love to work with you," but this isn't the right fit, in terms of a position. So, please consider me for anything else that will meet my (financial) criteria, and maybe we can get together on that. Thanks!"

That's enticing them into having an off-the-menu experience.

If you don't hear from them, call back every month, to check in.

Believe me, if you have a lot to offer, they make cook up something very tasty, just for you!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Get A Head Start In Negotiations

Writen by Eric Garner

If you want to start negotiations in a winning position, then you need to prepare like a tiger. That means you must pay attention to 7 crucial areas.

1. Check Whether You're In A Negotiating Situation. A negotiating situation exists when you are in any communication or problem-solving situation with others that can work out to your advantage. If there is no advantage to you, then don't negotiate; you'll only lose. As Sun Tzu, the author of "The Art of War", said hundreds of years ago, "Engage only when it is in the interests of the state; cease when it is to its detriment. Do not move unless there are advantages to be won."

2. Clarify Your Aims. Your overriding aim in any negotiation is to achieve the objectives you and your constituents have set. There are other aims, such as getting a good deal and improving your relationship with the other side. But getting what you want is tops. Always keep this aim firmly in your sights and don't stop until you get it.

3. Gather Information. Once you know you're in a negotiating situation, you need to gather information about the other side's offer and use it to refine your own. Many negotiations come unstuck simply because one side or the other doesn't listen, or check, or take the time to clarify exactly what the other side are offering, or indeed what they themselves are offering. This means that throughout a negotiation you should do tons of listening, clarifying and checking. And when it comes your turn to put over your case, you should use every skill you can muster to make sure they understand.

4. Negotiate With Your Own Side. It is rare to go into a negotiation only representing yourself. Usually you negotiate as a representative of others, your constituents. Part of your preparation for negotiations has to be spent getting the best mandate from your constituents. Aim to get the support you need; the trust you need; the resources you need; the understanding you need; and the freedom you need.

5. Get A BATNA. A BATNA is your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement and is the only certain way to be successful in negotiations. By preparing for negotiations with one party by sounding out an alternative deal with another party, you get walkaway power. It means that, even if the alternative isn't quite what you want, you are still prepared to go there, if need be.

6. Prepare The Setting. There are five questions to ask yourself when preparing the setting for a negotiation. They are: Who? (ie who is to take part and do what?); Where? (ie our place or theirs?); When? (ie what is the time scale?); Why? (ie what are we negotiating about?); and How? (ie how are we to present our case?).

7. Prepare Yourself Mentally. The right attitude towards negotiations is the principal difference between successful and unsuccessful negotiators. Getting into the right frame of mind before you begin should be part of your preparation plan.
* aim to be tough, business-like, alert and unyielding
* don't feel you owe them anything - don't be a bowl-beggar
* don't put yourself above or below them
* stay relaxed and unhurried
* don't reveal your feelings at any point.

There is no guarantee that good preparation will lead to success in negotiations. But the chances are that poor preparation will lead to failure. Don't take that risk. Pull out all the stops to get a head start and you won't regret it.

(c) Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com.

If you enjoyed this article, why not sign up to our FREE 10-day Leadership Skills e-course? All you have to do is send a blank email to leadership@freeautobot.com and you're under way. For lots of other FREE training resources, visit our website at ManageTrainLearn now. Manage: to get it right! Train: to stay on top! Learn: to be a success!

Barter Its Not Just For Doctors Anymore

Writen by Angie Dixon

Time was, in the country, the local "doc" was as likely to get paid with a couple of chickens as a couple of dollars. Doctors these days won't stand for that, of course, but while some people have moved completely away from barter and stayed there, others have embraced it wholeheartedly.

Today I worked on a barter deal with a web designer to do search engine optimization on my web site in exchange for some articles. I HATE doing SEO, and I LOVE writing articles. This person needs articles written and is good at SEO. It's a good match.

Later in the day I put together a mailing designed to entice a massage therapist into bartering for my coaching services. I have a lot of pain in my back and shoulders, and a massage would do me good, but I really can't afford monthly massages. If this works out, I will work an extra three hours a month in exchange for massages, hopefully every two weeks.

Barter isn't for everyone or every situation, but it does have some advantages for the home-based business. You can usually get something you need, you can save your cash for other things, which you also need, and you get a "customer" who's willing to give you referrals and testimonials.

How do you know if you should barter? If you have a skill or product people want, if you have the time or extra product to spare, and if you are willing to put in the effort looking for people to barter with, it might be a good idea for you.

Where do you find people to barter with? Check Google for barter directories and barter sites. Many Work at Home Mom sites have barter sections. If you don't find what you're looking for, go find someone who does or has what you need, and offer a barter deal. Sometimes they'll go for it, sometimes not. My SEO deal came through a barter site. My massage therapy plan is strictly my own. But I'm betting out of 60 massage therapists in my city, one will be interested.

If you don't have time or extra product, or if you're uncomfortable trading your products or services for other people's, then barter might not be right for you at this time. Keep it in mind for the future, though.

If you can get it, barter's a good deal. You often get more than you could afford to buy or would put money into, and you expand your business as well.

About The Author

Angie Dixon helps small business owners get their acts together. She is a personal development coach specializing in helping people integrate their home and work lives so they feel less stretched and more balanced. Get her FREE EBOOK on balance at http://www.discoveringtruenorth.com. For questions or to discover how coaching can change your life, contact Angie at mailto:angie@discoveringtruenorth.com.

You are free to use this article in ezines, web sites and print publications. If you do use it, please send a quick email to mailto:angie@discoveringtruenorth.com. Thank you.

Negotiating Forcing Vs Compromising

Writen by Andrew E. Schwartz

Forcing is a hard-nosed approach that makes heavy demands from the outset. Emotions are displayed frequently, few concessions are made, and the bottom line may be concealed. This technique is used when the other side is determined to make you lose, or in one-shot deals. One advantage of this approach is that it normally uses less time than other approaches and leads to total victory if you have more power than the other side. The disadvantage of forcing is that it can lead to stalemate if the other side uses the same approach. The other side can also become resentful and vengeful.

The forcing approach to negotiating places value solely on the substance of negotiations rather than the relationship between the parties. A forcing negotiator would be pleased if he or she won 100% of the issues, even if the relationship between the parties was irreversibly damaged or even destroyed. This approach has limited use within organizations. It is foolish and dangerous to burn bridges with anyone with whom you work. Perhaps if you are negotiating with a person you'll never deal with again (e.g., a used car salesperson) you might want to experiment with the forcing approach. Otherwise, this isolating type of negotiation is not relevant for most managers.

In the compromising approach, both negotiators start with exaggerated demands and then slowly work their way toward some middle position. The parties are concerned only with their own needs, and they may also stereotype and malign each other. Compromising is used when the parties are interdependent and continued dispute would be more costly than agreement. The benefits of compromising are that it is a natural style for most people, and it appears to be quite fair as both sides win and lose. The drawback of compromising is that it can lead to extreme initial positions as both sides anticipate splitting the difference, therefore yielding agreements about which neither side is really happy.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Be Stingy With Discounts

Writen by Bill Lee

Speaking of discounts, I'm reminded of what I once heard from a great entrepreneur from my home state of Georgia, Ely Callaway. (Callaway passed away in 2001.)

Early in Ely's career, he was an up and coming management star at Burlington Industries, but the No. 1 position in the company did not seem to be in the cards for him. So rather than remain content with his position in the company, he left Burlington Industries and founded a wine company, Callaway Wines, in a growing region in California not known for the greatest grapes. But Ely Callaway knew wine.

Within four years of the founding of the winery, when the Queen of England toasted the United States on its bicentennial celebration, glasses all around were filled with Callaway Wine.

Then another opportunity beckoned, and Ely Callaway transformed one more passion into a well-run enterprise, Callaway Golf. When asked how he engendered such great success in three disparate industries, Ely Callaway offered this advice to other entrepreneurs:

"Produce a quality product, market it well and never, never discount it."

I don't know about you, but I really enjoy getting a good price when I make a major purchase. Remember that I said a "major purchase." This doesn't mean that I negotiate with the checkout clerk in the grocery store, but if I'm buying a piece of furniture, a suit of clothes, an automobile or a lawn mower, I do my best to buy below the asking price.

The best way I've found to be successful at getting a salesperson to bend on price is to simply ask for a discount. There are all kinds of discounts in the retail world, and your customers have most likely learned how to ask for just about all of them.

WHO DO YOU BLAME

I blame either the company's pricing policy or the salespeople themselves when customers become so accustomed to receiving a discount that they ask for discounts just about every time they make a purchase. The reason customers get into this very bad habit for the retailer -- but very lucrative habit for the customer -- is because we as salespeople have taught them so well. They've learned that if they ask, all the salesperson can do is say no, and quite often the salesperson says, "Okay."

ARE YOU A DEALER OR RETAILER?

DEALER: A popular definition of dealer is one who engages in trading or bargaining.

RETAILER: One involved in selling goods to ultimate customers.

So, is your business engaged in trading and bargaining or is it engaged in selling? I believe most of the readers of this newsletter fall under the definition of a retailer, distributor or manufacturer as opposed to dealer. BUT, does your behavior make customers think of you more as a DEALER?

When I think of a dealer, I most often think of an automobile dealer. Most of us dread buying a car because of the way automobile dealers approach selling their products. No matter how good a price you negotiate for an automobile, you can always find someone who paid less for the same make and model with the same accessories. For many buyers, buying a new car is more painful than it needs to be because they never believe they can trust automobile salespeople to voluntarily give them the dealership's lowest price. We have to attempt to wrangle it out of the salesperson.

Don't misunderstand me, I teach negotiating, so it's not that the negotiating process intimidates me. It's just that it's time consuming and should be unnecessary when doing business with a supplier partner. And those of us that do business with suppliers or vendors on a routine basis usually prefer to have such a good relationship with our suppliers that we don't have to beat them up to earn their "best" price.

Incidentally, Lexus, CarMax and others have over the past few years adopted a "no-haggle" price. And survey after survey shows that buyers love it.

My suggestion is this: Sit down with your boss and agree on the prices you believe are competitive. Tell your customers that based on extensive research, i.e., shopping the competition, studying multiple competitive quotes loyal customers have shared with you, analyzing the market, etc., you believe the prices you are quoting to be competitive. When they ask for a discount, say, "I promise you that we have already discounted these prices as much as we possibly can. We believe that they accurately reflect what's going on in our market."

Cost vs. Price

Your customers must be made aware of the difference -- frequently major differences -- between cost and price. Here's one group of words to accomplish this: "There's a big difference between cost and price. Price is just one factor…the amount of money we charge you for material on the face of the invoice. Cost is made up of much more…the price on the face of the invoice, PLUS you have to consider the quality of our products and services, the labor to install them, the services the salesperson personally performs, how fast your projects move along when you do business with us, how promptly we issue credits, etc.

How much does it cost your customers when jobs are slowed down due to poor service from a supplier? If you don't already know, you will benefit from asking them. Ask: "For each day of delay, how much do you believe that day costs you in dollars and cents?"

Salespeople's ability to successfully explain the difference between cost and price will often determine their ability to successfully defend the prices they quote AND avoid discounting altogether.

Bill Lee is author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line ($29.95) and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot ($21.95). $6 S&H for first book, $1 for each additional book. See Shopping Cart at http://www.BillLeeOnLine.com.

Creating The Right Atmosphere For Negotiating Differences

Writen by Carla Rieger

Conflict resolution is one of the most important skills needed in the 21st Century. Think how often you need to negotiate with people, even on the weekends. For example, on Saturday I started out negotiating with my husband whether or not to go for a run or a walk. We settled on a run/walk. Then we stopped into a garage sale to buy a coffee maker. We dickered a bit over the price. Later, my assistant wanted to change the day she came into work. That took some creative thinking to find a solution. In the evening, we talked with our grown son about vacationing together in November. Should he come here, should we go there? It happens constantly. Yet, few of us learned any formal skills in this area.

Mostly we learned conflict resolution when we were young - from watching the adults in our life. They learned it from the adults in their life, and so on. If the big people had good negotiation skills you lucked out, if they didn't, you get to blunder along as they did. Unless of course, you decide to learn some new skills. Some adults showed us that good negotiation means always having it your way. Conquerors get what they need in life, but may be quite unpopular. Other adults showed us that others should always get their needs met first. Sacrificers are perhaps more loved, but often lose people's respect. On top of that they may get a symptom of chronic resentment, such as heartburn or pain-in-the-neck. Another popular technique in Western cultures is to avoid all conflict at any cost. Evaders often notice that people don't trust them. It is hard to feel on stable ground with them because their rugs are very lumpy, too much swept underneath.

Good negotiation skills help you to get your needs met, AND those of the other party. This is easier said than done. It requires time and creativity. If the stakes are high enough, however, it is often worth trying to find a win-win solution. As the population expands, resources dwindle. We, as a species, now know how to destroy ourselves, and all other species of plant or animal life in a matter of minutes. The old phrase "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" comes to mind. We NEED to learn to share and get along, or else. Many forms of collaborative negotiation are emerging to meet that need. The most popular is the cognitive approach. This is where the two parties talk things through. However, in practice this method alone usually only provides short-term solutions. It can also be challenging for those who are unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings.

It helps to focus on the impact of other levels of communication. All the verbal skills in the world won't help, if people can't see past their own perspective. Non-verbal, kinesthetic influences such as facial expression, tone of voice, room set up, time of day, emotional mood, body language, personal power, core beliefs, intention all contribute to the success or failure of a negotiation. Right-brained or gestalt approaches to conflict resolution invite in the whole person. By consciously operating from deeper realms of communication, profound changes can occur in shorter periods of time. For example, my theatre troupe tried several times to negotiate a problem with another troupe over the phone and via email. Finally, we sat down face-to-face in a beautiful room overlooking the ocean, with a roaring fire. Over tea we managed to sort through many issues in one sitting. The environment and the fact we could read each other's non-verbal signals helped us re-build trust.

Many people take the time to create the right atmosphere when spending a romantic weekend with their beloved. They get candles, music, good food, and ensure comfy surroundings. Yet, when they have a touchy issue to bring up, they blurt it out while rushing through traffic. It pays off tremendously to set the right tone, time, space, and place for dealing with interpersonal issues - whether at home or work. When we have on-going disharmony with key people in our life, and issues don't get resolved; our energy and effectiveness are compromised. Although it may be uncomfortable at first, a thoughtful negotiation is always worth it. Otherwise we cannot move forward in life. As a great Evader once said "Before I criticize someone, I walk a mile in their shoes. That way, if they get angry, they're a mile away and barefoot."

Carla Rieger is an expert on creative people skills at work. If you want a motivational speaker, trainer, or leadership coach to help you stay on the creative edge, contact Carla Rieger.

Web site: http://www.carlarieger.com
Tel: 1-866-294-2988
Email carla@carlarieger.com

How To Negotiate Effectively

Writen by Gary Cain

You may be thinking, "Gary, I am a mom, housewife, or stay-at-home dad, so why do I need to know how to negotiate effectively?"

I'm glad you asked.

The truth is everyone needs to negotiate. Surprisingly, almost everything we do the moment we get up in the morning until we go to bed involves some type of "negotiating".

I know, you are saying that I have lost my mind, but no, seriously, we do negotiate –continuously.

Let's say, you are 18 years old, live with your parents, yet work. So, you wake up at 6 am, and begin a negotiation with your younger brother, who is already in the very bathroom that you need in order to take a shower and get ready for work.

To avoid arriving late to work, you quickly offer to pay $5.00 to him to leave the bathroom immediately so that you can take a shower.

Next, you head into the kitchen to negotiate with your mother over your preference for orange juice and toast for breakfast, while she is counter-negotiating a complete meal of oatmeal, eggs, milk, and sausage.

Who wins this negotiation is anyone's guess.

The point is that all of us constantly negotiate. For example, we negotiate – or should -- with our car mechanic to lessen the cost of maintenance and repairs.

Soooo …. to help you succeed in your negotiations, I have prepared this special article that will outline the tools and knowledge you need to succeed.

First, you need to know "what is a negotiation." Simply put, it is the exchange of ideas with the intention of changing relationships, agreements, or viewpoints.

Negotiation requires …

1. Calmness
2. Understanding of people
3. Preparation before the negotiation (preferably written)
4. Strategy for success (you need to know what the other side wants from the negotiation)

Remember that negotiation requires that you give something of perceived value in order to receive something of value.

Negotiation may be giving up something today for a later advantage.

Here is a short list of non-aggressive negotiation strategies:

Know what you want

Know what the other side wants

Note the "feelings" of your opponent

Verbally accept the opponent's viewpoint

Give your opinion and ask for opponent's opinion

Give positive comments and ask for positive comments

Respect differences of opinion

Verbally express "how" the two sides are similar

Strive to reach "mutual" benefits

Build a strong relationship for future negotiations

Be sure to note …

…the tone of your voice.

…how you pronounce your words.

…your own body language.

…your opponent's body language.

Finally, remember that you should always keep the relationship positive so that you can return and negotiate another day.

Copyright 2005 – Gary E. Cain – All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Gary is a business teacher and Internet marketer. He owns and operates his own language school in Brazil. Gary has written two books: Stop the Grammar and Internet Self Defense.

Gary provides forward-thinking and "already put it in practice" tutorials for home-based Internet businesses that are seeking information and free web tools to maximize sales and revenue.

Please take a moment to visit his website at http://www.dollarsforever.com and consider subscribing to Gary's Dollarsforever Ezine. As a subscriber to his Ezine you will receive his monthly, high-quality tutorials delivered directly to your email inbox.

Ask For More Than You Expect To Get

Writen by Roger Dawson

One of the cardinal rules of Power Negotiating is that you should ask the other side for more than you expect to get. Henry Kissinger went so far as to say, "Effectiveness at the conference table depends upon overstating one's demands." Think of some reasons why you should do this:

Why should you ask the store for a bigger discount than you think you have a chance of getting?

Why should you ask your boss for an executive suite although you think you'll be lucky to get a private office?

If you're applying for a job, why should you ask for more money and benefits than you think they'll give you?

If you're dissatisfied with a meal in a restaurant, why should you ask the captain to cancel the entire bill, even though you think they will take off only the charge for the offending item?

If you're a salesperson:

Why, if you are convinced that the buyer wants to spread the business around, should you still ask for it all?

Why should you ask for full list price even if you know it's higher than the buyer is paying now?

Why should you ask the other person to invest in the top of the line even when you're convinced they're so budget conscious that they'll never spend that much?

Why should you assume that they'd want to buy your extended service warranty even though you know they've never done that in the past?

If you thought about this, you probably came up with a few good reasons to ask for more than you expect to get. The obvious answer is that it gives you some negotiating room. If you're selling, you can always come down, but you can never go up on price. If you're buying, you can always go up, but you can never come down. What you should be asking for is your MPP-your maximum plausible position. This is the most that you can ask for and still have the other side see some plausibility in your position.

The less you know about the other side, the higher your initial position should be, for two reasons:

1. You may be off in your assumptions. If you don't know the other person or his needs well, he may be willing to pay more than you think. If he's selling, he may be willing to take far less than you think.

2. If this is a new relationship, you will appear much more cooperative if you're able to make larger concessions. The better you know the other person and his needs, the more you can modify your position. Conversely, if the other side doesn't know you, their initial demands may be more outrageous.

If you're asking for far more than your maximum plausible position, imply some flexibility. If your initial position seems outrageous to the other person and your attitude is "take it or leave it," you may not even get the negotiations started. The other person's response may simply be, "Then we don't have anything to talk about." You can get away with an outrageous opening position if you imply some flexibility.

If you're buying real estate directly from the seller, you might say, "I realize that you're asking $200,000 for the property and based on everything you know that may seem like a fair price to you. So perhaps you know something that I don't know, but based on all the research that I've done, it seems to me that we should be talking something closer to $160,000." At that the seller may be thinking, "That's ridiculous. I'll never sell it for that, but he does seem to be sincere, so what do I have to lose if I spend some time negotiating with him, just to see how high I can get him to go?"

If you're a salesperson you might say to the buyer, "We may be able to modify this position once we know your needs more precisely, but based on what we know so far about the quantities you'd be ordering, the quality of the packaging and not needing just-in-time inventory, our best price would be in the region of $2.25 per widget." At that the other person will probably be thinking, "That's outrageous, but there does seem to be some flexibility there, so I think I'll invest some time negotiating with her and see how low I can get her to go."

Unless you're already an experienced negotiator, here's the problem you will have with this. Your real MPP is probably much higher than you think it is. We all fear being ridiculed by the other. So, we're all reluctant to take a position that will cause the other person to laugh at us or put us down. Because of this intimidation, you will probably feel like modifying your MPP to the point where you're asking for less than the maximum amount that the other person would think is plausible.

Another reason for asking for more than you expect to get will be obvious to you if you're a positive thinker: You might just get it. You don't know how the universe is aligned that day. Perhaps your patron saint is leaning over a cloud looking down at you and thinking, "Wow, look at that nice person. She's been working so hard for so long now, let's just give her a break." So you might just get what you ask for and the only way you'll find out is to ask for it.

In addition, asking for more than you expect to get increases the perceived value of what you are offering. If you're applying for a job and asking for more money than you expect to get, you implant in the personnel director's mind the thought that you are worth that much. If you're selling a car and asking for more than you expect to get, it positions the buyer into believing that the car is worth more.

Another advantage of asking for more than you expect to get is that it prevents the negotiation from deadlocking. Take a look at the Persian Gulf War. What were we asking Saddam Hussein to do? (Perhaps asking is not exactly the right word.) President George Bush, in his state of the Union address used a beautiful piece of alliteration, probably written by Peggy Noonan, to describe our opening negotiating position. He said, "I'm not bragging, I'm not bluffing and I'm not bullying. There are three things this man has to do. He has to get out of Kuwait. He has to restore the legitimate government of Kuwait (don't do what the Soviets did in Afghanistan and install a puppet government). And he has to make reparations for the damage that he's done." That was a very clear and precise opening negotiating position. The problem was that this was also our bottom line. It was also the least for which we were prepared to settle. No wonder the situation deadlocked. It had to deadlock because we didn't give Saddam Hussein room to have a win.

If we'd have said, "Okay. We want you and all your cronies exiled. We want a non-Arab neutral government installed in Baghdad. We want United Nations supervision of the removal of all military equipment. In addition, we want you out of Kuwait, the legitimate Kuwaiti government restored and reparation for the damages that you did." Then we could have gotten what we wanted and still given Saddam Hussein a win.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Roger, Saddam Hussein was not on my Christmas card list last year. He's not the kind of guy I want to give a win to." I agree with that. However, it creates a problem in negotiation. It creates deadlocks.

From the Persian Gulf scenario, you could draw one of two conclusions. The first (and this is what Ross Perot might say) is that our State Department negotiators are complete, blithering idiots. What's the second possibility? Right. That this was a situation where we wanted to create a deadlock, because it served our purpose. We had absolutely no intention of settling for just the three things that George Bush demanded in his state of the Union address. General Schwarzkopf in his biography It Doesn't Take a Hero said, "The minute we got there, we understood that anything less than a military victory was a defeat for the United States." We couldn't let Saddam Hussein pull 600,000 troops back across the border, leaving us wondering when he would choose to do it again. We had to have a reason to go in and take care of him militarily.

So, that was a situation where it served our purpose to create a deadlock. What concerns me is that when you're involved in a negotiation, you are inadvertently creating deadlocks, because you don't have the courage to ask for more than you expect to get.

A final reason-and it's the reason Power Negotiators say that you should ask for more than you expect to get-is that it's the only way you can create a climate where the other person feels that he or she won. If you go in with your best offer up front, there's no way that you can negotiate with the other side and leave them feeling that they won.

These are the inexperienced negotiators always wanting to start with their best offer.

This is the job applicant who is thinking, "This is a tight job market and if I ask for too much money, they won't even consider me."

This is the person who's selling a house or a car and thinking, "If I ask too much, they'll just laugh at me."

This is the salesperson who is saying to her sales manager, "I'm going out on this big proposal today, and I know that it's going to be competitive. I know that they're getting bids from people all over town. Let me cut the price up front or we won't stand a chance of getting the order."

Power Negotiators know the value of asking for more than you expect to get. It's the only way that you can create a climate in which the other side feels that he or she won.

Let's recap the five reasons for asking for more than you expect to get:

1. You might just get it.
2. It gives you some negotiating room.
3. It raises the perceived value of what you're offering.
4. It prevents the negotiation from deadlocking.
5. It creates a climate in which the other side feels that he or she won.

In highly publicized negotiations, such as when the football players or airline pilots go on strike, the initial demands that both sides make are absolutely outlandish. I remember being involved in a union negotiation where the initial demands were unbelievably outrageous. The union's demand was to triple the employees' wages. The company's opening was to make it an open shop-in other words, a voluntary union that would effectively destroy the union's power at that location. Power Negotiators know that the initial demands in these types of negotiations are always extreme, however, so they don't let it bother them.

Power Negotiators know that as the negotiations progress, they will work their way toward the middle where they will find a solution that both sides can accept. Then they can both call a press conference and announce that they won in the negotiations.

An attorney friend of mine, John Broadfoot from Amarillo, Texas, tested this theory for me. He was representing a buyer of a piece of real estate, and even though he had a good deal worked out, he thought, "I'll see how Roger's rule of 'Asking for More Than You Expect to Get,' works." So, he dreamt up 23 paragraphs of requests to make of the seller. Some of them were absolutely ridiculous. He felt sure that at least half of them would be thrown out right away. To his amazement, he found that the seller of the property took strong objection to only one of the sentences in one of the paragraphs.

Even then John, as I had taught him, didn't give in right away. He held out for a couple of days before he finally and reluctantly conceded. Although he had given away only one sentence in 23 paragraphs of requests, the seller still felt that he had won in the negotiation. So always leave some room to let the other person have a win. Power Negotiators always ask for more than they expect to get.

Roger Dawson
Founder of the Power Negotiating Institute
800-932-9766
RogDawson@aol.com
http://www.rdawson.com

Roger Dawson is the author of two of Nightingale-Conant's best selling audiocassette programs, Secrets of Power Negotiating and Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople. This article is excerpted in part from Roger Dawson's new book - "Secrets of Power Negotiating", published by Career Press and on sale in bookstores everywhere for $24.99.

Meet Me In The Middle 5 Reasons To Negotiate For Compromise

Writen by Dina Giolitto

Hate to negotiate? Think you have to be a trickster to land that contract? Think again. Here's why honesty is always the best policy, even when you're swinging those big biz deals.

1. Your future clients deserve a taste of what's to come.

If compromise and cooperation are the name of your game, make that clear from the get-go... even in the pre-contract negotiation phase. Be open about your expectations; present yourself accurately and realistically. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Your frankness will be rewarded.

2. You reap what you sow.

If you inflate your capabilities, you can bet it will come back to bite you in the hiney when you can't make good on your promises. Instead, be courteous to your future colleague and offer up-front honesty so that they can utilize every means to move the project forward.

2. Slippery people fall through the cracks.

"Slippery" negotiators not only say one thing when they mean another, but they're notorious for saying two different things at two different times. A savvy businessperson will be able to spot inconsistencies in your claims... especially now that email correspondence means an easy conversation trail. Deceptive speech and weak character won't be lost on a prospective client. Be forthright and above all, be consistent.

3. Contracts are born from a need for mutually beneficial relationships.

Never accept a work offer without first determining its relevance for you. Contracts, after all, stem from mutual need. If the person with whom you're negotiating can't offer something beneficial, such as career growth or great pay, why would you accept their conditions? Likewise, if you're not the person for the job, they deserve to know and will appreciate your clarity in the matter.

4. It's worth it to end the stalemate.

A stalemate can work in two ways. In one scenario, you've negotiated a price and your potential client has countered, arms are crossed and neither of you are budging. In the other case, maybe you can't even GET to the money conversation because you're each waiting for the other to make a move. Either way, someone has to step up to the plate and state the case from both angles, then take a bold step forward or else make a permanent retreat.

5. You never know when opportunity will come knocking again.

Even if you don't end up contracting with said prospect, it behooves both parties to keep relations open and friendly. If you close the door on someone simply because they've decided not to work with you, you're letting your ego get the best of you and that's limiting. Keep the faith and be ready for future doors to open... perhaps with this person, or maybe an associate of theirs.

In short: honesty is the best policy, and compromise is always the ultimate goal. Go for a win-win situation every time.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free.

Ten Things A Doctor Joining A Medical Group Must Know Before Signing Your Employment Contract

Writen by Gerry Oginski

BEFORE JOINING A MEDICAL GROUP, YOU MUST LEARN THE ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Who owns the property where your office is located?

2. If one or more partners own the property, do they charge your Group rent for the space it occupies? To understand this, let's say that your Group has three doctors. Dr. Senior Citizen bought the building 15 years ago, where your office is located. He's now the landlord. Dr. Middle Aged, and Dr. Young Un' are employees of the Group. Your Group then pays rent, as it always did to the landlord. But now, the landlord just happens to be the senior partner of the Group. In reality, he's paying himself money from his practice for rent. Believe it or not, this is totally legitimate. He's using pre-tax dollars to pay his office rent. He's then receiving rent from the Group to pay any mortgage or other expenses he has on the building, like maintenance and upgrades. I'll bet you anything that he's making a profit on his investment. It's a strange situation and gives the appearance that there's something wrong with this set-up, but most times there's nothing wrong with doing this. The senior partner could just as easily have bought a building down the street. But shouldn't Dr. Senior Citizen at least give his Group a discount on the rent? From Dr. Citizen's point of view, why should he? From the Groups' perspective it seems greedy that Dr. Senior Citizen won't reduce the rent, thereby leaving more money in the Group to pay the employees a bonus at the end of the year.

This has happened in a number of Groups and the employees wind up paying their partners for the benefit of renting space the Group or a member of the Group already owns! This tends to generate animosity because the Partners are clearly benefiting from owning the property at the expense of their associates. The employees of the group need to understand that the owner of the property deserves to be paid regardless of who the landlord is.

In most cases, it is not the Group that owns the building but rather one or two of the partners that own it directly either personally or through a corporate entity. If the medical Group owned the building then this scenario would be different, and it would be a good idea to address this point further.

3. How much time is left on your office lease?

4. How many doctors work in the Group? How many are partners? How many full partners? How many partial or non-equity partners? (A non-equity partner is someone who is held out to the public as a 'partner' yet does not share in the profits of a true 'partner' A non-equity partner will usually be paid a higher salary than when he was simply an employee. The downside is that as a non-equity partner, you have no right to, and cannot claim any portion of the profits.) How many physician employees?

5. How many staff do you employ?

6. Hours of operation?

7. Call schedule? Do partners take equal call? Do associates take same call as the partners?

8. How many days per week are you expected to see patients in the office?

9. How many offices will I need to travel to?

10. Do I rotate through different offices or do I stay in one office?

Even before you start to negotiate your physician employment contract, you need information- lots of it. The only way to get that information is to ask lots of questions. This way, you'll be better informed, and better able to evaluate your options.

Attorney Oginski has been in practice for 17 years as a trial lawyer practicing exclusively in the State of New York. He has recently published a book that will help every doctor in residency and every doctor changing jobs to understand their employment contract. Take a look at his useful website, http://www.mdcontract.com for more information.

Over the last ten years, Gerry has developed a niche practice helping residents and physicians who are changing jobs by evaluating and negotiating their physician employment contracts. Gerry can be reached at http://www.lawmed1@optonline.net, or 516-487-8207. All inquiries are free and totally confidential.

Negotiating A More Favorable Situation At Your Dog Kennel

Writen by Lance Winslow

If you are one who does a lot of traveling and has pets, you know it is not always possible to find someone you can trust to house sit. Therefore you may have to consider taking your dogs to a dog kennel or your other pets to a pet hotel.

These facilities and those who operate them have specific programs you can choose from as to how much pampering you want to have for your pet. It is possible to negotiate a more favorable situation at your local dog kennel or pet hotel if you will consider doing so.

This is not to say that you will not want to get the regular package only that you will want to get ups and extras but not be charged for them. The most important thing is to get the employee who takes the order to fall in love with your pet. Next, the dog kennel must not see you as a rich person or they will not give you any discounts or ups and extras without charging you exorbitant rates.

Once you have established those two items now you're ready to negotiate for price all the while explaining how important your pet is and what a wonderful animal it is. Most people fail to negotiate for more favorable situation at their dog kennels and those that don't; it is their dogs that pay the price. Consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

More Than Just Money Barter

Writen by Donald Lee

By definition, barter is the when parties swap services or resources. But in business terms, it's an exchange that ends usually with everyone a winner. All parties involved in bartering hold onto their cold hard cash and don't lose a cent. There's no worries about getting ripped off as a buyer or seller, so it's an exchange that's high on trust, low on tension. And finally, the government doesn't get its hands on any of the proceeds. Bartering is such a great system, it's no wonder it's been around nearly forever.

Historians and archeologists reckon that bartering is a human business practice for the ages. It goes back as far as written history, and perhaps even further into mankind's (and womankind's) history of business practices.

Between humans, the actual business practice of money came long before money was invented. In written history, as far back as 9,000 BC, shepherds used cattle as a means of exchange—from sheep to cows, camels to goats. Then when farmers came along during the course of the next couple thousands of years, grains and plants became the hot commodity in the world of bartering.

Bartering may have dissipated over the years, but it by no means went away. That's the amazing thing about bartering. It still is, to this day, the ideal method of business exchange for some business folk, including companies with millions in assets. But it's especially helpful for small businesses looking to get a leg up on their competition.

Listen to people talking in today's business world, and you'll hear stories such as the programmer who helped to code an interactive Web page for a startup graphic-design company, in exchange for a logo design for his own startup surf-board design shop. Then there's the story of the new Internet advertising firm rolling out an ad campaign for a restaurant. Later that year, the restaurant hosted a "free" party and dinner for that ad firm's clients.

Examples in today's business world abound for bartering. The reason is that bartering still has many advantages to it in this modern business world.

For instance, for companies that are just starting to build up their assets, bartering is an opportunity to save their hard-earned cash. Even established companies love the chance to keep their money in the bank. With bartering, a company can get what it needs, while providing a service that the other company needs.

And because there is no money passed between pockets, the taxman does not even need to know about it. That saves you, and your accountant, the trouble of figuring out one more piece of business income or expense.

Lastly, deals involving money may whip up the old Scrooge mentality—a combination of greed and mistrust. With money deals, you may always be left wondering if you got the short end of the stick. Not so with bartering. With bartering, you get exactly what you need. And in return, you give a fair share of goods or services.

There's no need to be a Scrooge here. Instead, the whole transaction is one of trust and understanding. Generally speaking, bartering for goods and services feels more worthwhile than paying money, whether you're bartering for a dinner party for your clients, Internet advertising space, or whatever it is that you and your bartering partner agree to. Perhaps it's because you can actually feel the value of your own goods and services. Or it may be just because you don't have to open your wallet.

Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services. Buy, Sell, and trade (barter): auto, computers, household items, real estate, pets and much more. For localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.com Free Buy & Sell Classifieds

For Barter Or For Worse This Trade Is Here To Stay

Writen by M Bawri

Mention barter and many people think it was something those ancients did by swapping things for food and vice versa when money wasn't around. Its time to wake up dude! You have been there, done that. You have bartered as kids. Remember those super hero comics you got for the baseball cards your pal didn't have? Well, the news is, barter as a form of business is alive and kicking, and making fast inroads into modern trade.

A standard dictionary defines barter as trading goods or services without the exchange of money. It is conducted between two parties who have products or services that each other need. The key word here is 'need'. In ancient times, if a toolmaker wanted eggs, he could only get them if the egg dealer wanted tools. And if he didn't, the toolmaker very well went without eggs. Or he went right back and clobbered the egg dealer silly with his tools to get those eggs! Err… this latter exchange may not qualify as bartering!

Since antiquity all societies successfully practiced barter as an accepted medium of exchange. In the not so distant past, doctors were being paid in chickens, apples or other farm produce! Then money made its appearance and became the lifeblood of business. And bartering was thought to have died a natural death.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. Bartering thrived all along, albeit on a low key. Take the case of the communist countries during the cold war. Barter often played an important role in trade for them, as their currencies were not readily convertible. Or take the case of Germany after the two world wars. Bartering became their prime means of exchange at the retail level, as currencies collapsed due to hyperinflation. So, barter saved the day for these countries.

Glyn Davies very rightly observes in A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day that "barter has, undeservedly, been given a bad name in conventional economic writing, and its alleged crudities have been much exaggerated". Barter has survived to this day. Why? Simply because people needed it then, as they need it now, only the methods have changed.

In the modern day, the advent of computers not only revolutionized the world, it also facilitated a sudden resurgence of bartering. The tremendous capabilities of this new technology of tracking barter transactions and maintaining huge inventories made bartering an easy and inexpensive form of trading. The spread of barter exchanges, which create markets for traders, has also fueled its spread. Bartering has become serious business and comes under the purview of the income tax and the sales tax departments.

Today, it is amazing to see what all can be obtained through barter… computer hardware and software, household items, jewelry, books, CDs, movies, hotel accommodations, real estate, etc. The list may well be endless! Barter is big business and getting bigger with every passing day.

Bartering is becoming popular because it offers some excellent benefits. It saves cash and increases profits by boosting the bottom line. It strengthens relationships because of closer interaction with barter customers. It generates new business, as barter customers often end up becoming cash customers or rope in others. It helps market business in ways not otherwise possible by attracting certain customers that are otherwise difficult to obtain. It helps to move surplus stock that will otherwise lie unsold. And it has the potential to expand the market area dramatically.

No wonder when considering funding applications, venture capitalists are increasingly evaluating the ability of applicants to barter. That barter is gaining legitimacy as a corporate asset is demonstrated by the many seminars targeting Corporate Finance Officers.

Businesses generally use two types of barter. The one-on-one bartering, which is the true form of bartering involving two parties, and third party bartering that uses some form of currency to allow more dynamic exchange between the parties involved.

If statistics provided by the International Reciprocal Trade Association are anything to go by, barter today is a huge six-billion-dollar business-to-business hit worldwide. And this figure is expected to grow by more than ten percent annually.

If you are not already bartering, you should probably consider it. There are numerous ways to find barter deals online. You can search for online barter websites, join online barter clubs or contribute to bartering newsgroups. If you have your own website, you can set up barter message boards or chat rooms to get barter offers.

For better or for worse, barter is here to stay, making business lucrative to the cash-rich and the cash-strapped alike. Edmund Burke has rightly noted in his speech on the occasion of Conciliation of America in the 1700s that, "All government – indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act – is founded on compromise and barter".

M. Bawri is an entrepreneur and a fashion designer. She prefers to create a separate space for each of her activities.

Doing Business In China Successful Negotiations

Writen by Robert Greene

1. The Chinese negotiating team tends to concentrate on developing a friendship with the member in your group who is most sympathetic to them. Later, they will pursue all their objectives through that individual, playing on the feelings of friendship, obligation and guilt.

2. Enter negotiations armed with technical information and records of any previous meetings. Any oversight on your part will be noticed and used against you.

3. You should have a clear sense of your objective and bottom line. Attempting to discuss your cooperation in "general principles" may give them an impression that you are not ready and your intentions are not serious.

4. During the opening stages of negotiations, the Chinese will try to get your general commitment in their favor. They will not proceed further until they know your position and attempting to push them forward is usually fruitless.

5. Long term commitment for cooperation will significantly increase your chances for success. The Chinese will be more eager to compromise on specifics if they get a broader perspective of cooperation from you.

6. Leave yourself extra room to negotiate. Chinese are known for their soft sell and hard buy. Substantial concessions are expected.

7. Try not to ask direct questions. Remember that your counterpart most probably is not the decision maker. Be sensitive while disagreeing so as not to cause hurt feelings.

8. An agreement for the Chinese does not mean the end of negotiations. They will not hesitate to open the discussion of some issues you thought had been resolved.

9. It is best not to emulate the Chinese style of negotiating. It is easy to be trapped by an illusion that you understand them and their culture. Keeping to your own style usually brings better results and appreciation.

10. Negotiations often involve more than task management issues. Developing the personal relationship is achieved through business entertainment. The dinners, the trip to the Great Wall, and so on are all part of developing the relationship.

Robert Greene, Worldbiz.com. Go to http://www.worldbiz.com to find business reports on international business practices in over 100 countries.

Embarrassed To Discuss Your Prices Seven Common Reasons We Cant Talk About Them

Writen by Karyn Greenstreet

Last week, a wonderfully-skilled electrician installed a new light fixture for us. He was competent, courteous and efficient. He answered all our questions simply, with skill and eloquence. I was amazed, as you might imagine, when I asked him, "How much do we owe you?" and his embarrassed reply was, "Gee, is $50 okay?"

With the quality of work he'd done and the amount of time he put into it, I would have expected to pay double that amount. His resistance to naming his price reminded me of my small business clients who have the same problem.

All entrepreneurs feel fear at some point, including attorneys, consultants, coaches, and writers. It's a natural part of starting or growing your business. It can be uncomfortable to take risks, to name your price and tell a prospective customer that you want to work with them.

Roberto Goizueta, the late chairman of Coca-Cola, said, "If you take risks, you may still fail; but if you do not take risks, you will surely fail. The greatest risk of all is to do nothing." Put this mantra into your head: Risk equals reward.

So, what's the problem?

I've discovered seven common reasons why we're afraid to discuss our fees:

1. Do you feel your fees are too high?

2. Do you think you're not qualified or experienced enough to charge that rate?

3. Are you afraid of rejection? (Or, possibly, afraid of acceptance, which will mean you'll have to perform?)

4. Are you afraid the prospect will raise an objection to the fee, and you won't know how to reply?

5. Are you shy and uncomfortable talking with strangers?

6. Are you afraid to take risks?

7. Are you generally uncomfortable talking about money?

Where does this come from? Is it part of your personality or is this a behavior you learned from your past experience or culture? In many families and cultures, it's taboo to talk about money or to ask to be paid. While it might be personally beneficial to look inside yourself for the reasons why you act this way, it's also important to get unstuck by using techniques which help you move forward, such as:

• Have a good pricing strategy. Research the average fees for your type of business so that you know your prices are in line with expectation. If you can't get competitor pricing information, try Brenner Books (http://www.brennerbooks.com). If your experience warrants it, increase your pricing to reflect your higher skills, knowledge and experience. If you're not sure how to create a pricing strategy, research it online or talk with a small business consultant or mentor.

• Establish that the prospective customer needs your services before discussing price. You'll feel more comfortable discussing your fees if you know the prospective customer really want to hire you. Ask a lot of questions to see if their problem and your solution are a good match.

• Put your fees on your website and brochure. In this way, prospects will know your fees before the sales conversation begins.

• Be honest. Tell the prospect what the options are for your services or products, any quantity discounts you offer, and how payment is delivered. Practice saying this over and over again until the words and phrases slip comfortably from your mouth.

• Act confidently when delivering your fees. Don't downplay your fees. State your fees, then shut up. Don't make excuses for your fees, or ramble on about them. Look directly at the prospect while delivering your fees.

• Don't automatically offer discounts. This tells the prospect that your fees are soft and that they're negotiable. Instead, state your fees and options and ask them to tell you which package is right for them.

• Act "as if." How would an experienced person in your industry act, when discussing her fees? Act as if you are that person and you'll find your confidence increasing with each conversation. Practice, practice, practice.

• Get training. If you're uncomfortable with the whole sales process, get sales training. By attending a class, you'll learn different ways of saying the same thing, and you're bound to find a way that's right for you.

• Refer out. If the prospect really can't afford your fees and you can't afford to offer a discount, refer that prospect to someplace where they can find an alternative. Say, "If you can't afford my fees, you can try these online referral services where you might find someone in your price range."

Talking about your prices can be uncomfortable. But with practice and persistence, and a willingness to overcome your fears, you can begin to have comfortable conversations with your prospective customers.

Karyn Greenstreet is a self-employment expert and small business coach. She shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to maintain motivation, stay focused, prioritize tasks, and increase revenue and profits.

Visit her website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com

Training Intended For The Intelligence Community Improves Business Negotiations

Writen by George Dennis

How can sales people get into the heads of customers or prospects with especially difficult personalities? Is a prospect always stalling when they say, "I'd like to think about it"? Wouldn't sales be much easier if one knew how the prospect makes a decision? When it comes to understanding the psyche of people you must negotiate with, and you only have one or two meetings to get it accomplished, nothing beats skills well known to government intelligence officers; how to tease the personal motivations from unwitting or unwilling subjects in a simple and casual conversation.

There are two skills involved: conversational tactics called "elicitation," and psychological profiling using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI.) Elicitation is the practice of using applied psychology in casual conversation to root out information about people's lives and work. Information they would not usually express if asked as a direct question. Instead of the service ceiling of a proposed jet fighter, however, in the business world the golden nuggets are usually, what is the budget, who really makes the decision, when is your deadline, what color is your new product and so forth.

The MBTI was originated in World War II as a way of assigning people with the most appropriate personality traits to the most appropriate factory jobs. Since the 1940's over 40 million MBTI interviews have been conducted around the world resulting in the quickest and most accurate indicator of personality preferences available to a non-psychologist. The twist is that instead of a company's future plans, the combination of elicitation and MBTI preferences results in immediate indicators of how the subject prefers to take in information, and how they organize their lives and how they make decisions.

Does it take three months at CIA's Virginia "farm" to learn enough to apply these principals? For business use, two days in a classroom, with some field practice normally does it.

First come the principles and dynamics of a conversation, then the elicitation. It goes something like this: Every person has some kind of "push to talk" button, a stimulus that gets them to offer additional information about themselves or their work. For example, (and you will notice this in your next conversation) some people instinctively correct others on every little fact. Some others are driven by the need to teach, and continue offering more information until they're sure you understand and appreciate their favorite subject. The sooner an elicitor can detect one of the seven or eight "talk buttons," the quicker they can use elicitation to exploit it. The other party becomes much more relaxed as the conversation goes on, rather than feeling they must put up defenses.

Next is the MBTI. It uses four "continuums" to scale whether a person is, for example, an Introvert or an Extrovert, and how intensely they feel these preferences. It is important to note that in Myers-Briggs terms Introvert and Extrovert mean how a person re-energizes and rejuvenates themselves mentally. Do they find a quiet corner with a book, or relax at a busy bar surrounded by chattering people? Each preference has massive influence on decision making or acceptance of advice and suggestions.

Given some clues as to what to look for and how to get people to give you those clues, the class then goes out for an evening exercise to engage a total stranger in a conversation and report back the next day with details of the person they met, and what the subject's MBTI preferences might be. Such sessions are best led by a psychologist who specializes in remote profiling- understanding the psyche of people you wouldn't ask to fill out a questionnaire. The real life examples open discussion of the sales group's most difficult customers or coworkers, and better ways of negotiating with them.

It is about now the bulb lights up. Most sales people can remember being taught to "trial close" the prospect several times during their presentation. Unfortunately, many executive prospects are Myers-Briggs "Introverts" for whom decision making is a very private affair. Being pushed for a decision or even a hint of a decision, will make the executive feel more and more uncomfortable, regardless of how the positively the proposed deal strikes him. While Introverts are in the minority of the general population, they occur in a disproportionately high number of high ranking executives.

Thus, the sales person who can't distinguish "I'd like to think about it" as a stall, or a genuine plea for time to come around to their way of thinking, is going to drive away perhaps a quarter of their highest ranking prospects. Worse yet, not knowing their own preferences make sales people easy information targets, ripe for exploitation.

This article is abstracted from training materials developed by George Dennis Associates, a competitive intelligence training, consulting and services firm. The company provides corporate clients on four continents with training and services for trade shows, customer and opposition executive profiling, competitive analysis and targeted competitor research projects.

Contact:
George Dennis, principal
George Dennis Associates
http://www.geodennisassociates.com
303-679-6515

Secrets To Powerful Negotiations

Writen by John Mehrmann

We negotiate every day. There are negotiations in sales, customer service, interviewing for a position, and relationships between vendors and suppliers. The most powerful tool in negotiations is not what we say, it is what we hear. Make a checklist of these five items and apply it to your next negotiations.

Active Listening

If in person, use body language to demonstrate your attentiveness. Make eye contact, respond to to statements with visible recognition, and do not allow yourself to be distracted by other activities or people. In not in person, be direct in questions and patient when receiving responses. Use "Active Listening Techniques" to get the most out of the communication. Listen for the Values implied as well as the ones stated.

Ask Questions

Even when you think that you may know the answers, prompt the other person to explain the situation or opportunity from their perspective. Listen closely to the perspectives and emotions that are implied, as well as the ones that are stated.

What's In It For Me?

Be honest and direct in sharing your objectives, and encourage the same in return. Understand the priority your own goals and communicate them clearly and concisely. Take time to discuss and document the goals, obstacles, opportunities and commitments of the other person. Let them communicate these needs and capabilities "in their own words". Find common goals and commitments.

Be a Partner, not a Judge

Focus on the facts and control emotions. If there are emotions, understand the facts and circumstances that contributed to creating the emotional response.

Write it down

Take notes during the conversation or document the highlights when the communication if done. Share the document, confirm consensus, and identify the next critical steps if continuing the negotiation, the sale, the issue resolution, or the general commitments. Conversations lead to negotiations, and these result in mutual commitments. Document the commitment to avoid confusion that can come from difference of opinion or perspective.

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Words of Wisdom

"Others can stop you temporarily - you are the only one who can do it permanently." - Zig Ziglar, founder and CEO, Ziglar Training Systems, author of "See You at the Top"

"Companies are no longer setting the agenda for what customers want. They're finding out where the agenda is being set and enhancing it. The customers decide what's important. Your job is to listen and respond." - Awram Miler, technology consultant

"Nobody wants to buy what you sell. What they want are the business results they can achieve by utilizing what you sell to pursue their own goals and objectives." - Bill Stinnett, "Think Like Your Customer"

______________________________________________________

FREE SAMPLE Course & Companion Workbook

(Designed for trainers, this material can also be used for self-improvement study)

Active Listening Skills

Includes Course Presentation and Companion Guide Workbook Train yourself to hear and Understand Content and Feeling of the speaker's message. Important skill for leaders, managers, sales, customer service and working with colleagues. Course covers Listening Habits, Attending Skills, Reflecting Skills, and Barriers to Effective Communication. Certificate of Completion

(Cut and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.executiveblueprints.com/agenda/0306activelistening.htm)

About the Author: John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development. You may distribute this article freely, print it, sell it, or include it as part of a package as long as it is intact, unchanged and delivered in the original format with acknowledgement to Executive Blueprints Inc.

Business Negotiation Tips For Small Business

Writen by Alexander Gordon

Negotiations are things we do almost every day of our lives. However, many of these negotiations do not make much difference to us in the big picture, so we tend to take them lightly. However, when you are negotiating for the business as a small business owner, then it will be very useful if you follow the business negotiation tips for small businesses. These are very important for getting the outcome that is beneficial for everyone concerned. A successful business negotiation can make a great difference for you and your business.

Do Not Shy The very first business negotiation tip for small businesses is that you should be willing to negotiate. There is no point in avoiding talking about money. At other times, people may be right when they believe that it is demeaning and rude; but when a business negotiation is going on, you cannot afford to be unwilling to talk about money. On the contrary, it may become an expensive affair.

Do Not Show Emotions Another business negotiation tip for small businesses is that you should not involve yourself emotionally in the deal. Attaching yourself emotionally to win the deal will produce a negative impact. Emotionally involved people even start shouting, threatening and wanting to get their way by using any means necessary, resulting in a negative exposure of their image. Here, you should keep in mind that a deal can take place only when both parties believe that they are gaining something from it. On the contrary, such intense emotional behavior may force the other person to walk away from the table.

Don't Be Deceived By Rules Tricks One more business negotiation tip for small businesses is to not let the other person deceive you by showing you any type of rules. For example, if you make some changes in the contract before signing it and the other party tells you that you cannot make such changes, then you are stuck. In this situation, you must tell them categorically that since both the parties are signing the contract, it is not possible that only one party has the rights to make changes in the contract. Many experienced negotiators use these tactics because they understand that most of the people do not wish to break any rules. If it happens to you, then ask the other person to show you the proof of existence of such rules. However, if the other party has any objections, then they can be resolved by sitting together.

A very important business negotiation tip for small businesses is that you should not open your mouth first when it comes to naming the figure. For successful business negotiation, you must learn how to make the other person say the figure first. Once he speaks his mind, ask for an even better figure, even if it is above your expectations.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business. Business Owners all across the country are joining "The Community of Small Business Owners" to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.

Negotiating Your First Deal

Writen by Lin Stone

In any type of business one must always be ready to deal with other people. It can be as simple as explaining the situation. For example, someone offered a house for sale at $40,000 and the other party explained:

"I'm sorry, the only houses I buy are purchased at wholesale."
"Oh," said the seller almost instantly. "Then you can have it for only $27,900"
That sounds incredible, doesn't it? Yet it frequently happens just that way.

Negotiation is a big part of the business world. Since the negotiation process cannot be avoided, the business professional must equip himself with proper skills and presentation techniques in order to survive in business.

Communication skills are a necessity. As my favorite aunt says: "Suffering in Silence is for fools who can't communicate." The best negotiation tool you can have is enhanced communication skills. When you want to be heard, you have got to speak up. The only way to get a better deal is to ask for it. One gets what one wants based solely on the ability to persuade others, and that takes negotiation, not luck. This is true especially in the worlds of business and finance, which are full of concerns about deals and agreements with prospective customers.

One must be fully aware that all the information involved in the deal must be true, honest and aboveboard. Misleading information must be avoided at all costs; otherwise, any of the parties involved might enter the contract with a different deal in mind. If such is the case, the best you can expect to happen is that it will certainly lead to confusion and the whole negotiation process could crumble before the deal is done.

All statements must be fair and free of errors. Misleading information and ambiguous terms must be avoided. Word meanings, phrases, and sentences, even whole paragraphs, should all be clear and understandable. Mutual understanding can only be attained through effective communication. Lay everything out clearly for the client. Both parties must be able to fully understand what the contract states. You cannot expect any contract to be entered into by a business professional until after they have become convinced that the contract provides a favorable deal for them.

To achieve a successful negotiation, you must possess fairness and honesty. The client believes that all statements coming out of the salesman's mouth are considered as binding. If it becomes obvious that his words are misleading, the salesman will lose his credibility. When this happens then it would almost certainly result in prospect walking out on the deal.

As you begin to negotiate, try to observe the situation from every perspective. You should always strive to anticipate every possible outcome -- whether it is favorable to you or not. This attitude will strengthen your negotiation and help you to come up with an agreement that will satisfy both parties. In every negotiation learn to stand your ground better and show how confident you are in the outcome you are seeking. While it is okay to have emotions, don't let them overcome your ability to think clearly. When that happens you will probably end up accepting a less than fair deal. Learn to listen well because that shows your sincerity. Stay open to every suggestion and recommendation that might lead to your benefit. Being flexible will help you reach a successful agreement.

Don't be afraid to offer innovative solutions during the negotiation if you believe they will pave the way to a common goal. Innovative solutions (sometimes mistakenly called compromises) can be very significant in closing a deal. Offer them firmly in order to meet the needs and wants of both parties. Since this is your first deal let me caution you against a common failing among inexperienced negotiators... There is an all too human urge, when the pressure suddenly ends to gush out further, unnecessary alternatives and concessions. Be ready for that urge to strike; bite your tongue, shut your mouth.

Once your goal is achieved, close the negotiation and make the deal final.

Click HERE for more information that can help you Negotiate like a Champion. Lin Stone has authored seven books and hundreds of articles. Click HERE for Lin's latest stories and articles.

Games Are A Reflection Of Behavior

Writen by Alicia Smith

You are standing on a small stage yelling, "What's the name of the game?!"

"Win as much as you can!!!" comes roaring back.

"Who's responsible for your score?!"

"I am!!"

The audience is composed of ninety men, all prisoners in a federal maximum security prison.

One more thing – you're a woman.

For three years, Alicia volunteered every Thursday at FCI (Federal Correctional Institute) in Bastrop, Texas-

"I used my skills as a corporate trainer to help these men learn to shift their perspective on themselves and the world."

"Along the way the prisoners taught me as much, perhaps more, than I taught them."

"In my training business, I use games as a way to break down barriers and shift perceptions. What I came to realize is that your behavior in a game is an exaggerated reflection of your behavior in real life."

Games are an opening to behave true to our natures, to react immediately rather than with a careful response. Depending on the other players, we may monitor our behavior less in a game than in the real world, but we aren't acting differently. In a game there are no emotional holds barred.

In a game, we are allowed to be more right brained than logical. After all, "It's only a game."

Saying something is only a game tends to trivialize its importance. Precisely because we view it as trivial, and of no importance, we can give ourselves permission to let our true natures out.

When we floated this idea before a number of colleagues, several of them told us stories of self-discovery. One woman, a very sweet and kind person in "real life", was known as "the enforcer" when she played hockey in school. Another shared that, when she plays a game against total strangers she becomes "brutal" and highly competitive.

So if our true nature comes out in a game, what can we do with that information?

Can we transform situations so that we can be true to our nature? Can we make a game out of real world situations to allow our true nature to flourish? The obvious example is to view business as a game to be won. This implies competition and a winner take all attitude.

Yet Covey and others have told us about creating win-win situations. Is there such a thing as a win-win game – a game where everyone wins, where no one loses? Can you devise a game where you can put your competitive streak toward a larger goal? Can the proverbial pie be made larger? As someone said to me, to transform from "me winning" to "we winning".

What's the name of the game? Win as much as you can!

Who's responsible for your score? I am!

The game Alicia played with the inmates was called "the handshake game". She had them pair up by size, height and weight and explained the rules. "We'll play the game for 45 seconds. You get one point when your hand taps his hip; he gets one point when his hand taps your hip."

The vast majority of the pairs had a combined score of 0 points. A few pairs scored in the 10 – 20 point range.

But one pair scored 260 points.

The high scorers had realized that the name of the game and scoring responsibility did not define a win-lose (or "zero-sum") game. That is, one person did not win at the expense of the other.

Of course, the entire thing was a set-up. Alicia paired them up by size, height and weight to set the expectation that it was an evenly matched contest. She got them chanting to get their excitement up.

And she neglected to tell them that the pair was a team and the team members' scores would be combined.

"Deliberately I didn't tell them they were supposed to cooperate with their partner. I also never told them who the competitors were."

We all know that a "formal" team must cooperate to win. The revelation here was that by cooperating they could maximize their individual scores.

What's the name of the game? Win as much as you can!

Who's responsible for your score? I am!

The rules say nothing about preventing the other person from getting a high score. The pair who "got it" quickly settled into a rhythm of "one for you and one for me". And they could have kept that up for as long as the game ran. Meanwhile, the other teams were struggling and would have exhausted themselves long before the winners did. And, when the few teams who did spot the pair who "got it" there were charges of "cheating" leveled at them. "We saw what they were doing but thought they were cheating or didn't understand the rules."

The cooperation – competition confusion is nicely summed up in the concept called "the prisoners' dilemma". Two people are arrested for a crime and there is enough evidence to put them both in jail for 1 year.

The police keep them isolated from each other and offer each the same deal: "If one of you talks and the other does not, the snitch goes free and the other one gets 3 years. If you both talk, you both get 2 years."

The partners can work together (by staying silent) and both get only a year in jail. By both defecting from the partnership to work with the police they will both get 2 years.

A single defector will go free while the one who cooperated gets 3 years.

The dilemma is formed by pitting trust against greed. The temptation of greed combined with a habit of competition blinds us to a different perspective.

But don't think that only prisoners are subject to this. When Alicia has had groups of corporate executives play this game, they fall into the same behavior pattern as the prisoners. In fact, in some corporate sessions nobody "gets it".

There seems to be a dichotomy between competing and winning. The idea of cooperating to win seems odd. In fact, we see other players complain that the ones who "get it" are cheating!

What you do depends on your view of the game. If the game is seen as a one-time event, why not be brutal – there will be no consequences. But if this event is one in a series, then cooperation is clearly the better long-term strategy, if only because there will be a chance for the other to get even.

In studies of prisoners' dilemma style games (played for points and not reduced jail time) the players eventually settle into a strategy dubbed "tit for tat". Their actions are saying, "If you cooperate last time, I'll cooperate next time. If you defected last time, I'll defect next time."

Using the word "defect" helps us see the shift – the opposite of cooperating (working on the same side) is defecting to the other side.

The desire to compete and the desire to win are not the same.

Game terminology (strategies, tactics, moves, etc.) is often applied to "serious" parts of life. Because the word game has a connotation of triviality, we sometimes bristle at its use to describe the things that mean the most to us.

What if we kept in mind that 'it's all a game' – would we behave differently?

Philosopher James P. Carse writes in the first chapter of Finite and Infinite Games, "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, and infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play."

The book's subtitle is "A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility." His premise is that a game is about the relationship between the player.

In the book he characterizes two types of players. Finite players play within the rules, infinite players play with the rules. Finite players play to end the game (with their victory), infinite players play to continue the game (by whatever means they see fit). Finite players play to win, infinite players play to keep playing.

The players who "get it" are playing with the rules looking to transform a finite game into an infinite one.

If this article has intrigued you we encourage you to look at the various "games" that you are "playing" and with whom. Who are your "teammates" and what kind of game are you playing? With increased awareness of our behavior, and the behavior of others, we are able to create a "win as much as WE can" mentality.

© Copyright 2004 Alicia Smith Consulting & Training. All Rights Reserved.

This article was written by Alicia Smith as told to John Satta

Alicia Smith is a Coach and Trainer whose specialty is helping business people to Make Money Now. She has taught over 10,000 people how to improve their business bottom lines. To learn more about her courses, products and services, please visit http://www.AliciaSmith.com

State Department And Negotiation Ramifications

Writen by Lance Winslow

It seems the United States State Department has their work cut out for them as they deal with dictators and foreign leaders who are problematic for peace in the world. Worse off much of the world runs on guns, drugs, arms, gems, worthless currency and human trafficking. It makes it rather tough to deal with some of these leaders of these Third World countries as they try to dictate policy and kill anyone in their way.

But sometimes in life you have to do business with questionable people, look at what our Department of State has to go thru with China, Syria, Lebanon, Nigeria, Venezuela, and about 35 others? You have to hand it to the State Department, as they deal with these scoundrels around the world. Also it seems that although the United Nations is sometimes called corrupt, you have to understand who they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Humankind is problematic and the primate politics of the world are even worse, but what can you expect from a bunch of sub humans? If the State Department does not negotiate and keep such people close to the vest then they can never keep America safe or keep our early warning detection systems operational to prevent us from being attacked or blindsided or cold-cocked by one of these ruthless scoundrels. Please consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/