Sherif H. Elkholy, Ph.D.

The worst negotiators are those that insist on getting the perfect deal. The best negotiators on the other hand recognise that negotiations are in essence a journey of compromise, A good negotiator enters any negotiating process with three things: an opening position, a target position, and a walk away position (called a “limit”). Through the negotiation process, the best of the best uncover the same three points for their counter parties, and they try to negotiate a win-win outcome… one that must fall within the overlap area between their limit and their counter parties limit, the close you are to your counter parties limit and the further away from your own limit the better. But it must be a win- win outcome, otherwise there’s no deal

Negotiation is an art not a science. A good negotiator enters any negotiating process with three things: an opening position, a target position, and a walk away position (called a “limit”). Through the negotiation process, the best of the best uncover the same three points for their counter parties, and they try to negotiate a win-win outcome… one that must fall within the overlap area between their limit and their counter parties limit, the close you are to your counter parties limit and the further away from your own limit the better. But it must be a win- win outcome, otherwise there will be no deal

It all starts with knowing your addressable market, its size, the driving forces for the demand, and the competitive landscape. From there, you can start defining what your USP (unique selling proposition is).

The best negotiators are those that listen more than they talk. By doing so, they can really understand their counterparty’s agenda and their priorities. By doing so, establishing what their limit is and what their target position is. This is essential to navigate to a win-win outcome

A zero sum game is one where there is no common ground between the negotiating parties. No area of overlap. This will always result in conflict, born out of a win-lose potential outcome. A good negotiator always looks for the overlap zone between their target position and their counterpart’s target position, and works within it to achieve a win-win outcome. The better of the two negotiators will end up as far away as possible from their walk away limit, and as close as possible to their counterpart’s walk away limit, but always still remaining inside the common ground

Emotions are an essential part of human nature. When it comes to negotiations, emotions can be our Achilles heel. A good negotiator listens more than they talk, and when they listen, they react in a measured way that doesn’t give away their negotiating hand. An emotive response can be quite telling inns negotiation, and can reveal to the counter party a lot about what your agenda, and your target position is. The best negotiators are those that only use emotive responses sparingly, and deliberately.