Just about anything you undertake to try and do starts by having a plan, your best understanding of how to do it. A first-rate plan or guide or some hints will help you to reach your goals. The three helpful recommendations in this article could make it simpler for one to stay away from problems and realize success. You could greatly enhance your chances of achievement through adhering to the following advice. When you start to focus on advanced presentation skills, it’s going to be essential to do things properly. If you do not, the effects might be disappointing. You could find yourself feeling frustrated that you’re not connecting with the audience, or maybe that your development has stalled. Listed below are 3 approaches to stop that from happening.

1. Learn to use vivid images You will have to learn to use vivid images since it avoids allowing your presentation to be boring. To not get this done might mean that you will be like most public speakers who bore their audience to tears. So don’t slip up and skip over this important suggestion!

2. Use Power Words Pretty much as important as learn to use vivid images whenever focusing on advanced presentation skills will be to use power words. You must clearly understand that this is important. It may help to look at an example of what is a “power word.” These are action words that have energy. If you listen to a speech by Steve Jobs he will always use words such as amazing, extraordinary or cool. Power words raise the enthusiasm level of your presentation, and that is something everybody engaged in presentation skills wishes for.

3. Don’t Use the Word “Very” Finally, when focusing on advanced presentation skills you should make sure to not use the word “very”. This could help with improving the emotional impact to your audience, that is certainly a major part of presentation skills. Should you not, you could potentially look like a lazy presenter — and I believe we are able to concur this wouldn’t be the best thing!

As was established at the start of this article, regarding advanced presentation skills, you really should avoid the sorts of mistakes that could lead to feeling frustrated that you’re not connecting with the audience, perhaps even that your development has stalled. What you want is to add energy to your speech, and you can get that result by closely pursuing the above ideas.

After my recent trip to Japan, some of the more striking things to me (beyond the cherry blossom trees) about the Japanese culture are their etiquette, respect, and overall visual presentation. I’ve always been an admirer of Japanese art- from calligraphy and brush painting to Ikebana, a style of floral arrangement.

In Japan, there is a sense of simplicity and beauty that is expressed visually. This beauty and simplicity also follows through in the politeness and graciousness of the people. There is an overall helpfulness to strangers and foreigners. As a tourist, if you stand around looking confused (maybe holding a map), in a short while someone will come up to you and ask you if you need help.

I suggest that as presenters we take a few lessons from Japanese culture. Here are eight ideas to consider:

1. Politeness – Use business and professional etiquette. Thank people for giving you their time and attention by attending your presentation or meeting.

2. Simplicity – Be clear and concise. Have a clear objective for your presentation or meeting. Stay on topic throughout your presentation. Don’t give people too much information. In Ikebana, floral arrangements are usually constructed with 3 main elements. Likewise, in your presentation – 3 main points or topics work well. Too much information leads to information overload, glazed over eyes and sometimes even snoring.

3. Respect – If you are giving presentations outside of your home country, take the time to learn some of the cultural norms and a few words and phrases. At the least, you won’t do anything considered offensive and ideally, you will show respect to your audiences.

4. Be a gracious host – Arrive early so that you can welcome people to your presentation or meeting and introduce yourself (if you don’t know people). If people do not know each other, facilitate introductions. Create a warm and welcoming atmosphere and make sure that the room is set up comfortably.

5. Quality – Japanese cars, trains, subways, electronics, and even toilets employ efficiency and features that American companies haven’t yet manufactured. The bullet train has been in operation since 1964 and carries millions of people on time each day, at peak times every 10 minutes, and it has never had a fatal accident. Quality includes paying attention to the details – no matter how small. We’ve all heard the phrase that God or the devil is in the details. Either way you look at it, the details are important.

Here are some presentation details to consider.

o Is your presentation of professional quality?

o Do you come across as a professional?

o Are you articulate and credible?

o Are your written materials grammatically accurate and typo free?

Suggestions to help improve the quality of your presentations.

o Have your presentation materials proofread by someone else. It is nearly impossible to accurately proofread your own documents. Your brain knows what you intended to write and will see that instead of what is actually on the page. Spell check is not enough.

o Pay special attention to your appearance and grooming. For important presentations be at least one step up of business attire than your audience. 1st impressions are important and tend to stick.

6. Beauty – How many PowerPoint presentations have you seen that are beautiful? I imagine, not many. Be different than everyone else – use photographs and illustrations where you can. Don’t use just text on your slides. Choose colors that are pleasing to the eye – be creative and have fun bringing a presentation to life with beautiful images.

7. Storytelling – History is passed down through the generations by stories in Japan as it is in many cultures. People remember stories better than facts as stories engage the senses and emotions. Use stories to illustrate your important points. Use stories to connect with your audience and be memorable.

8. Celebration- One of the truly fascinating things about Japanese culture is that people do not usually express emotions outwardly during the work day. However, the evening time is a different story! After working a long day – it’s typical to see a group of office workers out in the bars and restaurants having a really good time. They are often loud, rowdy, and completely different than their daytime demeanor. I think that both the camaraderie and the celebration are important to keep people motivated and engaged.

I hope that you find these presentation ideas helpful and if you have a chance, you can spend some time in Japan. It is a beautiful country – with courteous and kind people who enjoy hosting guests.

If you’d like to see what Japan looks like in the cherry blossom season, here is a link to some of my trip pictures that you can view as a slideshow: http://homepage.mac.com/gklamt99/Japantour/PhotoAlbum16.html

Ever feel like you’re presenting on “auto-pilot”? Or like you’ve gotten to the point where you present okay, but still feel like you could do better?

Here are four suggestions for taking your presentations from okay to outstanding, so you can really connect with the audience and convey confidence as you communicate your message.

Rethink Your Content

Don’t overwhelm your audience with information and tell them everything you know about the topic. Focus on the few points that they need to know and keep the details as backup material to answer questions or to hand out later as a supplement.

Also, include personal stories that are relevant to the message and the audience. For example, if you’re talking to new project managers, share a story of how you learned from the mistakes you made on your first project, when you ignored the growing gap between the planned and actual budgets.

Rethink Your Slides

Before you automatically open up PowerPoint and start creating slides, think about whether you even need them. How will they add to your presentation? If you truly believe they will be helpful in your presentation (or they are – unfortunately – required by organizational culture), then rethink your content and formatting.

Move beyond long sentences and cheesy clip art, and instead include high-quality photos that you’ve found online or taken yourself. For example, in a presentation about conveying leadership presence, I included a photo of a peacock that I had taken at a zoo – with the words, “Be confident (not cocky)” in 40-point, bold font.

Rethink Your Presence & Your Non-Verbals

Do you convey confidence, knowledge, sincerity and energy? Having a strong and confident (but not cocky) presence will make it easier for the audience to view you as an authority and respect your knowledge. As one manager said, “When my team presents, I want them to have all the information and also look like they know what they’re talking about.”

Make sure that your non-verbals – your eye contact, voice, gestures, movement, posture and facial expressions – communicate the same message as your words. For example, the audience will be less likely to hear, understand and believe you if your voice volume is too soft to be heard, you face the screen instead of the audience and you pace nervously in the front of the room.

Rethink How You Practice

When you get less nervous about presenting, it’s a good thing! However, if it means you no longer spend any time practicing, it can prevent you from having more impact and taking your presentation to the next level.

Practice out loud in as close to a dress rehearsal as you can manage. For example, stand or sit based on how you will really present. Record yourself on audio or video and then review it or get honest feedback from someone whose opinion you respect – and who also is a good presenter.

The next time you have to give a presentation, follow these four suggestions so you can take if from okay to outstanding. You’ll be amazed at what it feels like to really connect with the audience as you communicate your message.

Somewhere in your organization someone will give a presentation today. It may be you, the person in the next office, or someone who works in another department. Even if you work solo, there are times when you will be the presenter.

Few would argue that being able to present effectively – whether you’re presenting to two or two thousand – is an important skill. And since it is such a commonly needed skill, there is plenty of advice available to you – books, courses, websites, tools, techniques, as well as the advice of so many others who “just want to help.”

Yet with all this advice, a large percentage of presentations still aren’t very effective. In fact, many are downright awful; not providing the desired responses from the audience – or any response at all. (Wouldn’t you agree?)

The advice in this article will be a little different.

Rather than sharing the common wisdom with you – which must not be working very well if so many presentations are still so poor – I will share some uncommon advice. Think about it this way – if you try some uncommon advice, you might get uncommon results. Given the overall record of the common presentation, that will likely be very good!

More visuals, less words. Your PowerPoint presentation has too many words, on every slide (and there are probably way too many slides too – but that’s another article). Visual aids should be visual. Start replacing the words on your slides with images. And not just pie charts and line graphs, but pictures and images that help tell your story.

More emotion, less logic. It takes more than logic to move people. Give your audience the facts they need, but don’t overload them. Make sure you speak to the emotional part of people as well. Talk about why, and not just how.

More stories, less “facts”. We read books, watch TV and buy movie tickets because we love stories. When you create stories around your presentation or include relevant and passionate stories as a part of your presentation, you will be more successful.

More focus, less scatter. If you can’t put the key concepts and ideas of your talk on the back of an envelope or on one side of a 3×5 card, your message is too scattered. Hone in on your key message; know exactly what it is. If you don’t know it, how can you expect your audience to know (or remember) it?

More preparation, less “I’ll wing it”. Giving an effective presentation takes preparation and planning time. Too many people give poor presentations because they simply rely on their slides and muddle through. If you want to be a more powerful presenter, you must be prepared.

More belief, less bluster. Let your passion for your topic, your message and your recommendations show! If you believe in your message, let people know that through your words, actions, body language, energy and more.

More audience, less you. Hopefully you aren’t giving your presentation for your benefit, but for your audience’s. So, focus more on them. Worry less about how you look or sound and more about helping them understand your message. If your focus is all about you, stop reading – none of these points will help you. A presentation should always be about the audience.

More you, less façade. No, this isn’t in conflict with the last point; you will be a more effective presenter when you are real, genuine and sincere. Drop the posturing and be real. Your audience will appreciate it, and they will listen and trust you more.

You’ve just read eight pieces of uncommon advice. But reading them isn’t enough. You need to apply at least one of them to your next presentation. When you do, you will be more confident and will achieve more of the results you desire. You will have an audience that has heard and understood your words and takes action because of the presentation.

Potential Pointer: If we want to better at anything – including presentations – sometimes we need to do things differently than everyone else. Following the crowd will, at the very best, allow you to only be incrementally better. Taking a different approach can lead to breakthrough success.

Do you love the work you do… until it comes to having to speak and presenting in public? You know support for your project, idea, proposal, purchase or even budget approval can be won or lost based on your ability to present with confidence and authority. Yet the simple thought of having to give a presentation keeps you awake at night, sick to your stomach and overcome with fear. The truth is you are not alone, a great majority of people feel this way.

Having conducted a variety of in-house and public presentation skills courses over the years, I find when you ask the participants why they are attending the answers tend to be the same. Interestingly, it’s not what most people would expect when taking a presentation skills course.

I’ve discovered it is less about learning new techniques, structuring content or where to stand and what to do with their hands. What I’ve found is it’s more about overcoming nervousness, overcoming their fears and dealing with difficult questions. In a nutshell, they come to learn how to build their confidence in front of an audience.

Here are three things you can do to build your confidence before your next big presentation.

Know your material well

This is key point. I can’t stress enough how important it is for a presenter to know their material, which is the content of the presentation. When you know the details well, your anxiety level comes down and your confidence level goes up. It is my belief that people don’t bother to really learn their material because they think all they have to do is read the presentation from the computer or the screen. This not only makes for a dis-engaging presentation, you’ll be lost if the boss asks you to cut short the presentation as you’re not sure which information to cut and what to share. Make the effort to know the content well once you’ve laid out the presentation and know the major talking points you want to convey.

Anticipate the questions which may come up

No one likes to be caught off guard, frozen in front of the management and their peers like a deer caught in the headlights. One of the best ways to prepare for the dreaded Q&A session is to actually think of potential questions which might come up in advance. List out at least five to eight challenging questions and craft the appropriate responses. Practice the responses so they flow effortlessly when answering. The goal is to avoid the embarrassing response of… uhh, uhh, let me see… In addition to the difficult questions, you should also prepare the responses to a few easy questions as well.

When it comes to actually responding to the question, follow a few simple steps. Listen carefully to the question. Acknowledge the person asking the question and then repeat or rephrase the question. This gives you the opportunity to ensure you’ve heard correctly and understand the question. Maintain eye contact and pause before responding to the question. If you receive a hostile question, rephrase it before responding.

Practice, practice, practice

Once you have crafted your presentation, created your supporting documents or PowerPoint and listed out your responses to difficult questions, it’s now time to practice. For individuals looking to really improve their performance, practice is essential. In the classroom I ask the group how many people practice four or five times before presenting. I have yet to have any hand go up. At best, twice seems to be the maximum number of times people will practice.

First practice the presentation so you can hear what you sound like. In fact, you should record yourself. Are there any words you trip over? Are you speaking clearly and finishing every word? What is your pace and tone of voice? Now go through it again and make note of how long it takes you. If you are given 30 minutes to present, aim for ending in 25. Next practice the presentation in front of a mirror to see if you have any odd facial or hand gestures. Your hands are your visual aids; use them when you want to emphasis a particular point.

Every person has the potential to become a calm and confident presenter. Your nerves and fears may not fully subside, however they will be significantly reduced and your confidence level will rise. You can certainly lessen your fears when you make the effort to know the material well, anticipate the questions; prepare your responses and then practice and practice again. What are you waiting for? Get going!

It is never easy to bargain about prices. What happens when you want to buy your favorite shirt? What do you do when you see that the price is beyond your budget? You try to negotiate with the shop keeper and get the price down. In case of debt negotiation, the settlement company completes this task for you. However, credit card companies avoid negotiations and discussions. They discourage the idea of debt negotiation because they want the customer to pay as much as possible. They try to blame the loan takers for poor records and reject their applications for settlements.

You will only be able to negotiate terms and conditions if the bank agrees to your initial request. Why would a bank decline a debt negotiation request if it is facing monetary problems.

· It has enough resources available to continue its trading activities. Thus, it does not need to bargain with the loan taker.

· The loan taker has been a defaulter in the past. Thus the bank declines the request due to policy reasons.

· Your consultants have not presented valid points for the debt negotiation application to be requested.

If we take the first point, this is an uncommon reasons a lot of us do not face this situation. The banking industry is one of the worst affected sectors. You cannot expect a lot of banks to decline proposals and offers. They need money and they need it fast. Even if a customer is willing to pay fifty percent, they will accept the offer. A larger percentage of banks have even closed down and this is a cause of worry.

Banks have very strict policies which do not change under any condition. We can take the example of the credit rating option. A bank will never compromise about the credit rating of its customers. Due to recession, loan takers have not made timely payments. However, banks have not granted any concession. The credit rating of all such customers has declined. Bank policies are designed on very strict guidelines and they do not change because of customer problems.

The third problem is a common one and very disturbing as well. Most loan takers are not confident about the capabilities of their consultants. They do not know what kinds of results to expect from them. If they fail to convince the credit card company, the application for debt negotiation is rejected immediately.

I still remember sitting in the car with our French representative on the way to our customer’s factory north of Paris some five years ago. At that time I was Director International Sales for a German technology company. The conversation went this way.

“Alain, what do you think? How much of a discount will Monsieur Ribault expect? You know, we offered the instrument including all accessories, installation and commissioning for 350,000 USD.”

“The last time, we sold the same machine for 280,000 USD was four years ago. Also, I know, you added some features to the machine that improved its performance. However, knowing M. Ribault, it will be tough to achieve a higher price than last time.”

“The price for the previous machine was already at the bottom. Our cost increased, not decreased, with higher wages, higher material cost and improved design. So we need a higher price this time.”

“Well, we can try to get him on 300,000 USD. Would that still be acceptable?” I inquired.

“Actually not, but o.k. At the same time we need this order now, so if he can decide immediately, we are willing to compromise to 300k.”

I knew that M. Ribault was a tough negotiator but I also knew that his company, a multi-national automotive corporation, was very satisfied with the machine they bought four years earlier.

When we met M. Ribault, he opened the conversation by saying that his top management’s requirement was to reduce the cost for any supplier by 3.5% per year on the average. This policy was introduced the year before.

M. Ribault was not a man of many words and he frankly stated: “We need your price to go down by 7% at least, i.e. the maximum we can pay for this machine is 260,000 USD. If you can’t follow our policy and efforts to reduce our cost, I’m afraid that we will need to look for alternative suppliers.”

Wow, there I sat, expecting to get a better price and now I had an important customer seriously saying that if we didn’t lower our price to 260,000 USD, we would be out of the game.

At first, I tried to explain why in this case it was impossible for us to lower the price and that we actually needed 7% more, not less. I realized quickly that this attempt would lead nowhere.

So what to do? Negotiate and pressure him so long until we reached a somewhat still tolerable compromise? Perhaps to reach at least the same price as last time? Give up? Give in? It seemed like one of us had to lose and that one would most likely be us, no matter if we compromised or not.

When I thought more about it, I realized that M. Ribault’s company would also lose. I knew that our instrument was by far the best the solution they could get for this application, so if we gave up, they would lose by choosing another supplier. If we gave in, they would lose because with such a bad margin on our side, service would be reduced to an absolutely necessary minimum in order to recover at least some of the lost margin.

Was it a lose-lose situation that couldn’t be overcome?

Suddenly, I realized that any common ground would not be attractive enough. We had to do something outside the box to turn this negotiation into a win-win situation for both parties.

Traditional negotiation practice teaches you to optimize your position when trying to establish a common ground. Common ground negotiations are straight forward and usually the fastest way to achieve an agreement. In most cases, they require compromises from one or both parties. Common ground negotiations are the appropriate procedure if the compromises are still attractive for both parties. Unfortunately this is often not the case.

So what do we normally do?

We either compromise our desired position through a sub-optimal compromise or we pressure the other party into an undesirable compromise, or both. In the worst-case scenario, we exit and let the negotiation fail.

Some might think, well, no problem if the other party compromises their position as long as we get what we want. A win-lose situation is a win for us and therefore is o.k.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this concept.

I strongly believe that if one party loses, both parties lose. Any win-lose situation eventually ends up as a lose-lose situation and is therefore not desirable.

So what else to do?

The answer is “Higher Ground Negotiation” which means to leave the common ground and to look for a higher ground that is attractive to both negotiation parties. To do this successfully, we need to have a few pre-conditions in place:

1. True trust between both parties

I elaborated on the issue of trust and it’s three key elements in our July edition of this E-Zine. Kindly refer to this section.

2. The willingness of both parties to create win-win situations

Of course, many hardcore negotiators still believe that a win-lose outcome is desirable. You may attempt to change your negotiation partners’ beliefs on this by coaching them through the potential consequences of win-lose situations. However, if this turns out not to be fruitful, you will need to decide on whether or not you want to continue doing business with people who want you to lose every time you deal with them.

3. A thorough understanding of what is important to the other party

If you have built some trust with your negotiation partners, they will help you understand what is truly important to them…and that may go way beyond the price of your product or service. You need to gain a thorough understanding of the other party to find a higher ground that is attractive to both them and you.

Once you have these three pre-conditions in place, you can start exploring an attractive higher ground. You will have to think outside the box and be creative. A solution might not be evident right away, so you might need to do some meaningful brainstorming.

In the case of our French customer, we discovered that there was an upcoming need for certain other products this company would typically source from our competitors. For a long time, my colleagues had tried to sell these kinds of products, but without success. I knew that we had rather big margins on them and could compensate for the loss of margin caused by selling the other instrument at 260,000 USD.

So everybody won. M. Ribault got his cost reduction, we got the order not only for this instrument but also for the other products and therefore could still get a good overall margin…and my colleagues were happy to finally get a chance to have their equipment employed at this important company.

Conclusion: “Winning” in negotiations means creating win-win situations. If one party loses, ultimately both parties lose. If the traditional approach of finding a common ground doesn’t lead to any attractive outcome for either party, you may need to look for a higher ground. Higher Ground Negotiations require trust, the desire for win-win situations on both sides, and a thorough understanding of what is important to the other party. With creative out-of-the-box thinking, an attractive higher ground can be found which results in true win-win situations making it unnecessary for you to compromise your position with a compromise.

Copyright 2006 Progress-U Ltd.

CREATING A POWER BASE

The study of power and its effect is important in the understanding of negotiation and relationships (or common ground) flowing from any negotiation. Every interaction and every social relationship, in side and outside organisations, involves an exercise of power.

Gibson et al. (1991:329) see power as simply the ability to get things done the way you want them done. For example, the power of the manager who wants increased financial resources is his ability to get the desired resources.

Power involves a relationship between two or more people. Robert Dahl, a political scientist, captures this important relational focus when he defines power: ‘A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something B would not otherwise do. A person or group cannot have power in isolation power has to be exercised or deployed, or have the potential of being deployed in relation to some other person or group. Power is similar to a currency exchange it is meaningless unless linked or compared as an exchange commodity. Power is never linked to price, but always to value.

PARITY IN POWER:

The concept of parity in power is important in any relationship, since in negotiation parity of power is the perception, by one party, that the other side possesses the ability to counter any form of power with a similar or different form of power that would render the further escalation of power useless. As stated, parity in power refers to balance in power deployment. Parity in power is a key factor in the behaviour of a successful negotiator.

In literature, a distinction is made between power and authority. Authority is regarded as the formal power that a person has because of the position that he or she holds in an organisation (Gibson et al. 1989:330). Directives are orders from a manager in an authoritative positions and are followed because they must be followed. So, persons in higher positions have legal authority over subordinates in lower positions. Power is vested in a person’s position, it is accepted by subordinates and it is used vertically in organisations.

On the other hand, influence is merely the potential of power deployment and is therefore the least amount of power that a person can deploy. To execute a karate punch on someone would demonstrate relative power;however, to warn the other side that the person has a black belt in karate would merely display the resource, i.e. the potential of it being deployed. However, when power is used as a threat, it is important that the negotiator remembers that a threat retains its power provided it is never executed. Upon delivery, a threat loses all its value.

INTERPERSONAL POWER:

French and Raven suggested five interpersonal bases of power that are important to negotiators.

1. - Legitimate power
2. - Reward power
3. - Coercive power
4. - Expert power
5. - Referent power

CLICK HERE [http://www.negotiationeurope.com/tools/power-meter] TO TEST HOW EFFECTIVE YOU ARE IN CREATING POWER

We will examine only Legitimate power in this edition of the Winner’s Circle and will cover the remaining interpersonal power bases in subsequent editions.

LEGITIMATE POWER:

Legitimate power is derived from the ability to influence because of position. A person at a higher level has power over the people below. However, each person with legitimate power uses it with a personal flair.

Subordinates play a major role in the exercise of legitimate power. If subordinates view the power as legitimate, they comply. However, the culture, customs and value systems of an organisation determine the limits of legitimate power. In other words, there are times when people respond to directions from another, even directions they do not like, because they feel it is proper and legitimate for the other to tell them and proper (obligatory) for them to obey. This is legitimate power.

Legitimate power is used in many ways during negotiation. People with a lot of legitimate power could use their positions of authority to ‘instruct’ other parties to follow certain procedures. Depending on the authority of the individual, the other players in the negotiation could follow whatever is decided, relying totally on the abilities of the individual in authority.

Sometimes one party will use legitimate power as a tactic against another party by:

1. bringing in someone who has the influence to make important decisions, and who has credibility with the other party or by

2. assigning a lot of legitimate power to an individual or individuals within opposing parties so as to use the need for power and status that exists in all individuals to get major concessions from them. This is sometimes referred to as ‘ingratiation’ or stroking.

It is important to recognise that legitimate power can only have influence if it is recognised by other individuals because it occurs only in a social structure. Some negotiators may attempt to deny the other party some of their legitimate power by:

1. denying them an opportunity to talk;

2. preferring to make reciprocal offers while insisting the other party continue to make concessions;

3. ignoring prior agreements on how to proceed; or

4. denying that any one of the other party can have any legitimate position of significance

In such situations a negotiator could find it necessary to establish some minimal legitimate authority before proceeding, and in some cases may in fact be advised to refuse to proceed until the other party shows by his or her behaviour, that the authority is in place. Once a small, secure base of legitimate authority is established, a skillful negotiator can extend it.

To learn more about:

- Reward Power and Personal Power

Go to my article on ezine.com entitled “The Use of Power in Negotiations – Intermediate”

HAVE YOU GOT ANY QUESTIONS? EMAIL ME FOR FREE ADVICE

Although it is often the most important single aspect to assuring a successful event, quality negotiating is often an overlooked and neglected art. Professional negotiators understand that negotiations require a combination of integrity, knowledge, homework, priorities, preparation and planning, and must be followed by follow through. In my well over thirty years of involvement in hundreds of events representing many millions of dollars, I have observed how anything other than quality negotiating is often the death – blow to having a successful event. Far too many times, individuals who have limited experience and even less expertise convince others that they are capable of negotiations, and almost invariably, that results in something being overlooked, misaddressed, or somewhat disastrous to the organization.

1. Successful negotiations begin with absolute integrity, combined with true knowledge, and carefully understood and considered priorities. Before negotiations should ever begin, a negotiator must truly understand what an organization both needs and wants, what the purpose of the event is, and what the highest priorities are. Priorities should be rated from absolutely required, to helpful, to wanted, to wished for, to would be nice to have. Negotiators must begin with a carefully prepared and realistic budget, so that the maximum can be achieved within a certain set of restraints. The chief negotiator must not only have experience, but must be master of negotiating, using his meaningful experience alongside numerous other characteristics, to be a true professional. Many untrained and/ or unprepared negotiators try to ask for the world, and make unreasonable demands, while also claiming to be able to deliver more than is realistic. This is far different than being merely unrealistic, but rather comes close to lying, which in the end result, creates disharmony and distrust when the event eventually occurs. A negotiator with integrity maintains a meaningful relationship, and often can achieve extremely important modifications, changes, tweaks, or adaptations when the event nears.

2. True professional negotiators also realize that they must do considerable homework, to enhance their negotiating advantages/ strengths and disadvantage/ weaknesses, as well as those aspects as it relates to their “opposition’s” bargaining power and strengths (or weaknesses). Once this is done, the most effective negotiations come about because a negotiator understands how to be creative, and to help the venue, thus reducing the venue’s costs. When a negotiator can find savings, he is able to convince someone to share that savings, thus creating a win – win situation. Negotiating takes painstaking, careful, fastidious planning and attention to detail. Only when the individual in charge of this process is well versed on all aspects of this process, and uses all of them, will an organization end up with the optimum results.

Don’t ignore the details. It is the savings in minor areas that often make the major things possible and even grander!

Recently I delivered a presentation on negotiation strategies at a conference for a worldwide organization. The hotel in which the organization booked my sleeping arrangements was very nice. I was really impressed by the accommodations and the special treatment I received from the hotel staff. I had a high value perception of the hotel.

Being the inquisitive type, and always looking for negotiation content to convey to my audiences, I called the front desk to find out my per night room rate. I discovered the rate the organization was paying for my stay was $70 more per night than it would have been had I walked in off the street. Even though I wasn’t paying for the room, I felt violated and became incensed. My perspective and the value of the hotel changed instantly. You see, I spend client’s money the same way I spend my own, judiciously.

When you negotiate, what considerations do you give to the value perspective of the person with whom you’re negotiating? Negotiation Tip: It’s a question you should give careful thought to in every negotiation you’re in.
The following are some thoughts to consider when you assess the value perspective of someone you’ll be negotiating with.

Negotiator’s perspective of value:
With some negotiators, they don’t care what they have to do to obtain the outcome they seek from the negotiation. Be cautious of this negotiation style. He may be willing to step on broken glass to reach his objective, with you being the glass (i.e. the only way for him to win is for you to lose).

Negotiator’s value system:
Some of you might have thought, it’s not my money being spent, why should I be concerned about the room rate. My value system states, as I indicated above, I spend my client’s money the same way I spend my own. Thus, if I’m part of the entity that’s overpaying (my value system), I too am being offended.

What might be the value perspective of those with whom you negotiate? You should always know the answer to that question prior to entering into a negotiation. You should also be aware of what will cause the other negotiator to compromise his value perspective, to what degree he’ll compromise, and where the line lies by which he’ll walk away from the deal, because he won’t compromise past that point.

Source of negotiator’s motivation:
In discussing the other negotiator’s value perspective, I stated you should always know what that perspective is. The reason being, you gain insight into how best to negotiate with that person, how he might react if you apply a particular stimulus, and what it is that’s really motivating him to negotiate with you. Once you have the pieces to that puzzle, the negotiation process will become clearer (i.e. what to do in given situations).

Keep in mind, the other negotiator could also be motivated by a source that’s not at the negotiation table (i.e. silent negotiator). If you sense such might be the case, question the other negotiator as to his ability to close the deal. Be very specific as to what that means based on the outcome you seek from the negotiation. If he displays any hesitation of not being able to complete a deal, set mile markers in which you get his sign-off before proceeding to the next stage of the negotiation. You don’t want to get to a point where he has to bring his superior into the negotiation, which will more than likely mean you start from a point you thought you’d already reached.

The perspective of value during a negotiation can change in a heartbeat. To the degree you follow the guidelines above, you can make that heartbeat quicken or slowdown. As such you’ll be in control and thus move the negotiation in the direction you wish it to go… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!