Negotiation , the way forward for the modern business mind

Negotiation , the way forward for the modern business mind

These negotiation techniques are primarily for sales, but apply also to other negotiations, such as debt negotiation, contracts negotiating, buying negotiations, salary and employment contracts negotiations, and to an extent all other negotiating situations. Negotiation is vital for an organization's overall effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness is a product of activities within a system - internal and external. Negotiation is critical to establishing the internal system (structure, people, functions, plans, measures, etc), and the organization's relationship to the external system (markets, suppliers, technology, etc). Negotiation is also critical to optimising the performance of activities internally and externally (principally through communication, by people).

Good sales negotiation - the rules of which feature below - can easily add 10% to sales revenues, which arguably goes straight to the bottom line as incremental profit. Good purchasing negotiation can easily save 10% of the cost of bought in products and services, which again arguably goes straight to the bottom line as extra profit. Good negotiation by managers in dealing with staff can easily reduce staff turnover by 5-10%, which reduces recruitment and training costs by at least the same %, as well as improving quality, consistency and competitive advantage, which for many companies is the difference between ultimate success and failure. Good negotiation by executives with regulatory and planning authorities enables opening new markets, developing new technologies, and the choice of where the business operates and is based, all of which individually can make the difference between a business succeeding or failing.

Modern collaborative approaches to negotiating

In modern times, the aim of negotiation (and therefore in training negotiating and negotiation role-plays) should focus on creative collaboration, rather than traditional confrontation, or a winner-takes-all result. The modern and ideal aim of negotiations - which should be reinforced in training situations - is for those involved in the negotiation process to seek and develop new ways of arriving at better collaborative outcomes, by thinking creatively and working in cooperation with the other side. Negotiating should develop a 'partnership' approach - not an adversarial one. As such, negotiating teams and staff responsible for negotiating can be encouraged to take a creative and cooperative approach to finding better solutions than might first appear possible or have historically been achieved in practice.

More to follow in the next Blog…………………………………………..