The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable: Laws of Business Success

75. The Law of Win-Win or No Deal

In a successful negotiation, both parties should be fully satisfied with the result and feel that they have each “won” or no deal should be made at all.

Consistent with your determination to enter only into agreements that preserve long-term good relations between the parties, you should always seek an outcome that satisfies both. Remember, you always reap what you sow. Any settlement or agreement that leaves one party dissatisfied will come back to hurt you later, sometimes in ways that you cannot predict.

A very tough negotiator told me proudly about a hard deal he had wrung out of a national organization for the distribution of his company’s products. He had demanded and threatened and negotiated an agreement ...