Negotiation Skills: Plant a Trust Land Mine

By — on / Negotiation Skills

In any negotiation, you’re likely to have information about the other party or about the deal (industry facts, economic health, new products, and so on) that the other party might not know you have.

To gain some measure of your counterpart’s trustworthiness, plant a “trust land mine:”

  • Ask someone questions to which you already know the answer
  • If someone avoids your information request, or if he lies outright, that’s one sign you should be careful about what you reveal – or call off the talks altogether.

Of course, someone who answers a few questions truthfully might not always behave honestly.

Nonetheless, trust land mines offer a reasonably good way of determining if a person is leveling with you.


Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.


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