Why We Need to Negotiate

  

Negotiation is a very important part of being a business owner. If we cannot negotiate effectively we will never get what we want and what we deserve.  There are many aspects to understand before you can properly negotiate. But most people are too afraid to negotiate. Professor Margaret Neale said something that really resonated with me in a video; She explained, “We need to answer an honest question when considering a negotiation; how much are you willing to pay to avoid the discomfort of negotiating?” Anytime we take an offer without negotiating out of fear or anything else we are paying for not negotiating. Two people can be offered the same salary to do a job, if one of them negotiates for an $8,000 increase that means that in four years the other person who was too scared to negotiate lost out on $32,000. Losing that much money just because of a fear of negotiating is a scary thought to most people that’s why we need to educate ourselves on how to properly negotiate so we can be more comfortable negotiating.

William McCormick explained in his presentation that there are 4 common mistakes made by negotiators. Of the four he mentioned the two that resonated with me the most were “conceding too much, too soon” and “Don’t understand what win-win really means.” “Conceding too much too soon” is something that I’ve personally been guilty of. Sometimes when trying to make as deal we feel like we need to give the other person an amazing deal. There’s nothing wrong with sweeting a deal but we need to understand that doing that too much can cause us to lose more than we are gaining from the deal. Win-win is something that most people don’t understand, it means that both parties benefit equally. This concept of mutual benefit is what we should aim to create in every deal.

Stan Christensen explained that to make negotiations smoother we should brand ourselves as trust worthy people. If we’re known as trust worthy people we will have a much easier time explaining our positions during negotiations. The only way to brand ourselves as trust worthy people is by being trust worthy. People have more respect for trust worthy people and it will have lasting effects on our career in general. Negotiations are not easy but by learning how to negotiate we can do it with confidence and get the outcome we want.