Learning How To Negotiate Through Life

Through your life, you're going to deal with many situations that will need you to use some abilities. Those situations will range from getting what you want to solve a problem or dispute.

And sometime you may not be one of the participants rather you're there as a mediator. In any case, these situations test your acumen and your ability to come up a solution that satisfies both parties.

It is of utmost importance to know how to manage through the waves of diverse environments. The simple fact that we live our own life doesn't mean that we get everything done magically. We often depend on the outcome from the interaction with other people.

So, it is essential to learn to move well through different terrains. To know what people want, their interest, and even their goals. People who are great by dealing with others always get best of every situation. And I'm not talking about taking advantage of your neighbors, I'm referring about proposing alternatives where any individual get benefits without jeopardizing the goodness of a certain group. In other words, creating an equal ecosystem where all people involved know they're getting a fair deal.

To be able to do, we'll be positioning ourselves at the top. Even we can become leaders in certain capacities. Besides that, this will also help us become better in our family circle and also among our closest friends.

In business

Naturally, you need to have a high skill in negotiation. Without it, you will always be limping after making a deal. What you have to understand first before proceeding to establish the parameters of a negotiation is IF it is really worth to start a negotiation.

This is the first question you should ask yourself. If you enter into a negotiation without analyzing the props and cons, you're just going to lose your time as well as the other person's.

So, after you decide that it is worth to sit down and talk, you need to think of a strategy or even multiple strategies. But the most important thing in this stage is to establish your BATNA beforehand.

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Never enter into a negotiation without your BATNA

First off, BATNA stands for best alternative to a negotiated agreement. I prefer to call it "You Best Alternative Offer." This just means that when you seem not to get the best deal, you have already thought of another proposition from which you cannot diminish it.

For instance, If you're negotiating to sell something for about $100. And you set your BATNA at $70. You can sell it for the price you want, or for $90, $80 or any amount, except going below your BATNA line ($70)

The same occurs with other types of deals like disputes. When you're trying to fix a problem, You must have a resolution that can work as a plan "B."

In addition, you need to know that perhaps there's something that you have to give in because you're cannot be all that inflexible. The idea to have a BATNA is double. First, it maintains the value of your proposal; and second, it tell the other person that your eager to make the deal fairly.

In business, the one that discover the other person's BATNA is going to have a vantage point since it since he will have a greater and more extensive management of the situation, which he can use to his advantage.

Interest based

It is common that even some negotiations begin with an interest based attitude, but there comes a time when the parties involved pop up to make their voice prevail. And each one of them turn the negotiation into a position based approach, where everyone wants to assert their proposals.

However, I personally believe that the interest based approach is the most useful because it takes into account the growth beyond the mere central of the negotiation. Besides that, we've noticed that people who want to expand in order to create something more durable and meaningful, focus more on the integration of ideas to reach a common goal where all individuals get the benefits.

Their mentality is also more inclined to renounce to some demands if that means that the deal will transcend into a fruitful and long-term relationship.

Entrepreneurial minds always think of this way as a pillar to create reliable relationship. When it comes to business, they tend to look at the whole picture. Details are important, but they don't put obstacles. On the contrary, they fix them.

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Know how to negotiate is imperative because as a matter of fact, we do it on a daily basis. Parents negotiate with their children when they want something. We negotiate when we want to sell and trade anything, or resolve a problem, couples do it because they are coexisting together, and married couples too since they're trying to make such coexistence lasting.

@edave

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