Opening Negotiations Effectively

Tips for opening negotitions effectively

Having planned the negotiation and set the scene for a successful outcome, there’s little point in spoiling your success with a weak opening. The start of a negotiation is one of the most important phases of the whole process, as this allows you to gain, maintain and increase your control over what happens during the bargaining phase. 

Here are some tried and tested tips for starting the negotiations strongly and with confidence:

• Stay calm and look calm – take your time, if necessary
• Make frequent eye contact
• Keep control of your own features, smile when you can and when appropriate
• Have your opening statements prepared but seemingly spontaneous in their delivery
• Ensure your opening statements sound reasonable
• Don’t fall into the trap of reacting to diversionary, emotional, aggressive or dismissive initial behaviours from the other party
• Ask yourself “What motivates someone to act like this if their position is strong”. Remember diversions indicate sign of weakness in the other parties case
• State everything positively and show you appreciate the importance of the issue to the other person
• Spend most of your initial communication asking open-ended questions
• Try to respond to questions and statements with questions that test importance and priority – “How important is that to you?”
• Show understanding about their point of view
• Listen aggressively to what the other party says – be especially vigilant for ‘umbrella’ words and phrases*
• Seek agreement on a positive conclusion early
• Get your demands on the table first – let the bargaining start from your opening position
• Don’t start with offering anything until you have something to bargain with
• Don’t just react to something the other party has said – explain why it is a problem for you to comply

source: https://www.totalsuccess.co.uk/opening-negotiations-effectively/