Are you and your team ready for the next negotiation?

Are you ready for the next negotiation?

“Sure,” you say, “we are prepared,” as you point to a Preparation Sheet given to you as a sample at a negotiations seminar or may be let you download to your laptop.

For many executive and non-executive negotiators, that preparation document with several untested assumptions — usually expressed as historical behavior of the other party — is how they plan to negotiate.

But if that’s all you have, and in this internet age, if it’s more than a few weeks old, you are not ready. Why? Because the assumptions you have made about the other party are probably not true anymore. Just like yours, other party’s business environment is constantly changing.  So, how are you going to deal with that?

It is imperative that you must prepare skillfully, because you do need to communicate your goals and planned activities to start an effective dialog. But don’t think preparation sheet as your only negotiating tool. It is only a snapshot of something larger, something we call, your negotiating skills.

Your negotiating skills are far broader. Your negotiating skills are habitual and help you execute your next best move by understanding where you are, where you’re going, why you’re going there, and how you’re going to get there.

Your preparation, if done skillfully, includes specific goals, trade ranges, walk-Away, wish list, possible concessions, and clear assumptions. Your negotiation skills are much more likely to include ability to ask right questions to uncover information, test assumptions and manage information correctly to strike a good deal.

As an executive or manager, you must constantly assess your teams’ negotiation skills ability to carry out their present and future responsibilities. Your people development plan needs to include your evolving thoughts about your organizations’ continually improving negotiation ability to support your current and future plans.

Don’t assume that over time negotiations skills will develop automatically. You will need to proactively install a training program focused at continually improving the negotiation skills of teams in your company. That is the only way, you’ll be able to make negotiations skills a corporate capability and therefore, a competitive advantage.