As a negotiation skills speaker and negotiation skills consultant, a frequent question that comes up in the Q&A sessions on negotiation is if the act of negotiation is just to reach agreement on contracts or the dialog between a sales organization and client. The question was far more meaningful than we might imagine especially in the present day where it is difficult to hire and retain exceptional people. The...
My specialty, as a negotiation skills speaker and negotiation skills consultant often involve asking groups the following question: “Do you think you’re the good guy or the bad guy?” The usual answer from audience members in my negotiation skills speeches is, “I try to be the good guy. I guess it depends.” Bad guys are not necessarily bad Many executives, business and tradespeople believe that negotiation needs to be...
As a virtual negotiation skills speaker, when presenting to groups I stress that many virtual negotiations are often “over” before you even have the chance to talk. In the “olden days” of about eight months ago, when we negotiated in-person, we had many visual cues, voice inflections and other intangibles to judge what the other side was thinking. Now, we have big and little squares on our computer screens....