Negotiation skills are something everyone does not carry by birth. Luckily, there are defined ways to become an effective negotiator. Various researches and studies display a few tactics on how to negotiate to yield outcomes in both remote and man-to-man bargaining. Regardless of the context, every successful negotiation strategy depends on five factors.
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The Craft of Communication
The most crucial skill that is essential to become an effective negotiator is excellent communication. While negotiating, your conversation style and vocabulary selection directly affect your capability to create trust-based impact and regulate the direction of the discussion. Keep practising proven communication techniques such as labelling and mirroring in day-to-day life; one can know how and when to use them to make the trust-based impact stronger. Being familiarised with the intention and purpose of these techniques will certainly aid you in the quick improvement and make you understand how to negotiate.
Labelling
Labelling is about figuring out the emotions of the other party, individual or group to bring it out to talk on and move the discussion accordingly in a productive way.
In his book “Never Split the Difference”, the Expert FBI negotiator Chris Voss says, “We spotted their feelings, turned them into words, and then very calmly and respectfully repeated their emotions back to them. In a negotiation, that’s called labelling.”
Mirroring
Mirroring is repeating the last three words or repeating the most vital piece of information that the other party or individual just said. For example, if someone says, “Look, we need a durable and affordable deal as soon as possible”. A simple mirror would be like, “Hmm, durable and affordable deal?
It creates a bond with the person you are negotiating with by displaying that you have heard what he said. It’s simple psychology that everyone wishes to get listened to, and this inspires them to open up with you and share their goals, fears, obstacles or other emotions.
Balance Your Emotions
While negotiating, maintaining an emotional balance-i.e admitting and regulating your own emotions, and decoding and expressing those of others is a practical skill.
Controlling your emotions aids you to understand the situation better and enables you to communicate most positively. While negotiating, if you are upset, disturbed, and aggressive, it will badly affect your communication style, and the chances are high that your counterpart will be following that same path. On the other hand, emotional intelligence involves figuring out and bringing out the counterpart’s emotions and recognising those subconscious factors. Thus, you can mould the conversation in a way that the other party can feel contented.
Stay Aware of the Situation
If you desire to become an expert in how to negotiate, you must develop situational awareness. Situational awareness goes excellent with emotional balance. To make a quick and valuable decision, a professional must be capable of grabbing and analysing a large amount of information at a time. It involves analysing what a counterpart is saying, identifying the tone, decoding your counterpart’s emotions, and finding out which type of touching factors affect their behaviour and ability to make decisions. Considering their background and dynamics may also impact the ability to conclude.
To understand all the given information, one should need to be emotionally balanced, which means clear-headed—tactical expression needs emotional balance and practice.
Calculated Empathy
One can affect the judgement as well as the behaviour of counterparts simply by identifying their mood. This highly effective technique is called Calculated or Tactical Empathy. Being sensitive enough to get the point of view of others even you disagree with is called empathy. At the same time, calculated empathy refers to understanding someone’s emotions in a way that doesn’t affect your decision ability.
Suppose you badly need to learn how to negotiate. In that case, do not forget listening to everything carefully rather than just waiting for your term to speak up is crucial for being an expert in tactical empathy. To figure out the vital information that can be used for the conclusion, you just need to let your counterpart speak up, which is when effective silence becomes crucial.
Effective Silence
A lot of people wouldn’t believe it, but silence is an effective and positive communication tool. Majorly, people like to speak about themselves to get comfortable and in control. Hence, let your counterpart talk, and it would help you to draft your strategy. In other words, the difference between silence and effective silence is strategic intentions.
Being Silent would:-
- Support you get the crucial information you need to know about the party, individual or group to execute your calculated empathy and converse in a way that involves emotional intelligence.
- Give time to your counterpart to clear or widen a point.
- Show respect and create a bond of trust.
- Slow down the pace of discussion and will give your counterpart space to settle with emotional aspects.
All these five factors in the row can be exercised and executed in your day to day life to achieve what you wish. You should endure these factors in your behavioural nature, and it’s crucial to maintain your proficiency. With this, one can deal in tough negotiations and set an example of how to negotiate like a pro.
