Business Negotiations

Effective business negotiation is a core leadership and management skill. This is the ability to negotiate effectively in a wide range of business contexts, including dealmaking, employment discussions, corporate team building, labor/management talks, contracts, handling disputes, employee compensation, business acquisitions, vendor pricing and sales, real estate leases, and the fulfillment of contract obligations. Business negotiation is critical to be creative in any negotiation in a business setting. Business negotiation strategies include breaking the problem into smaller parts, considering unusual deal terms, and having your side brainstorm new ideas.

Leveraging the contrast effect is also a powerful tool in negotiations. You might ask for more than you realistically expect, accept rejection, and then shade your offer downward. Your counterpart is likely to find a reasonable offer even more appealing after rejecting an offer that’s out of the question. Additionally, offering several equivalent offers that aim higher than your counterpart is likely to accept will elicit reactions that can help you frame a subsequent set that, thanks in part to the contrast effect, are more likely to hit the mark.

Building a team is critical to negotiations in business. To prevent conflicts among diverse, strong-minded team members from overshadowing group goals, negotiation teams should spend at least twice as much time preparing for upcoming talks as they expect to spend at the table. Because the other side will be ready and willing to exploit any chinks in your team’s armor, it’s important to hash out your differences in advance.

Other business negotiation tips include curbing overconfidence, creating value in the negotiation, establishing a powerful BATNA, effective use of emotions at the bargaining table, caucusing, delineating your zone of possible agreement, and other skills geared toward an integrative bargaining outcome rather than a distributive, or haggling, bargaining outcome.

In addition, considering the ethical and legal repercussions of a deal to insure that it is a true win-win is the hallmark of every experienced business negotiator.

Articles include many business negotiation examples, and explore concepts such as creative dealmaking, renegotiating unfavorable deals, seeking advice from a negotiation opponent, identifying a solid BATNA and crafting draft agreements.

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Who’s Looking Over Your Shoulder?

PON Staff   •  12/14/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Adapted from “Onlooker Alert!” First published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Unless your official title is “lawyer” or “agent,” you probably don’t think of yourself as an agent. But if you’ve ever represented a family member, your boss, your department, or your organization in a negotiation, you’ve served as that party’s agent.

Representing others at the bargaining table … Read Who’s Looking Over Your Shoulder?

Pitfalls of the Powerful

PON Staff   •  12/13/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Adapted from “Are You Too Powerful for Your Own Good?” by Ann E. Tenbrunsel (professor, Notre Dame University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Imagine that you’re a national account sales manager and are preparing to negotiate your annual raise. You have met all your sales objectives and feel that you are not only a valuable … Read Pitfalls of the Powerful

Dealing With Constituents

PON Staff   •  12/06/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Adapted from “Dealing with Backstage Negotiators,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Negotiated agreements sometimes go off the rails in the final hour because one side caves in to a constituent’s wishes despite having the authority to make a commitment. Because people tend to approach negotiations with an “us versus them” mentality, they may succumb to … Read Dealing With Constituents

Letting Them Down Easy

PON Staff   •  12/06/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily, Negotiation Skills, Webcasts

First published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In recent years, a number of new Web-based systems have changed the very structure of negotiation as we know it. One of most famous of these is Priceline.com, which allows consumers to make bids for rental cars, hotel rooms, and air travel-bids that the car-rental firms, hotels, and airlines can … Read Letting Them Down Easy

Negotiation? Auction? A Deal Maker’s Guide

PON Staff   •  12/03/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Guhan Subramanian, Joseph Flom Professor of Law and Business, Harvard Law School; Douglas Weaver Professor of Business Law, Harvard Business School; Author of Negotiauctions

When you have something to sell, should you hold an auction or negotiate a collaborative deal that delivers maximum value to both sides? In this article, professor Guhan Subramanian compares the risks … Read Negotiation? Auction? A Deal Maker’s Guide

Professor Subramanian Featured in NYTimes DealBook

PON Staff   •  12/01/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily, News

PON Executive Committee member and author of the book Negotiauctions was featured in the New York Times DealBook discussing the effectiveness of go-shop provisions in contracts. To read the full article, click here.

Professor Subramanian found that “despite the conventional wisdom, go-shops were generally effective and did indeed result in subsequent bids. The one exception … Learn More About This Program

Professor Robert Mnookin Discusses Apple and the Beatles in the NY Times

PON Staff   •  11/17/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily, News

PON Chair Robert Mnookin was interviewed by the NYTimes Dealbook about the recent deal made allowing iTunes to sell music by the Beatles.

“Professor Mnookin noted that he often tells his students, ‘Before you go into any negotiation, any party should ask, what are my interests, what do I care about, and what are my alternatives … Learn More About This Program

When Goal Setting Goes Bad

PON Staff   •  11/12/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Max Bazerman (Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; author of Judgment in Managerial Decision Making; co-author of Negotiation Genius and Predictable Surprises)

Setting goals has become an embedded practice in management, but does it truly produce beneficial results? In this provocative article by Max Bazerman, he and his collaborators from top business … Read When Goal Setting Goes Bad

Adding Value to E-mail Negotiations

PON Staff   •  11/08/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Adapted from “Make the Most of E-mail Negotiations,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

At a recent social gathering of professionals, the topic of negotiating via e-mail came up. “My work team is constantly shooting e-mails back and forth,” said Sarita. “But since I’m driving and meeting with clients most of the time, I can’t respond … Read Adding Value to E-mail Negotiations

Help Your Organization Do More with Less

PON Staff   •  10/25/2010   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily

Adapted from “How to Do More with Less,” by Lawrence Susskind (professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Times are tough, and managers need to find a way to squeeze more out of every contract negotiation. How can you improve how your organization negotiates?

Though we tend to think of negotiation as an … Read Help Your Organization Do More with Less

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