The Five Golden Rules of Negotiation

The Secret of the Expert Negotiator

You are the head of government of a rich country. Your car industry exports 50,000 vehicles per year to a neighboring country, while your domestic market imports virtually no cars from that country. For you, it is important to maintain export levels. The head of government of that neighboring country suddenly demands a 30% reduction in your car sales in his market. How should you respond?

You could tough it out, refusing to make any concessions while threatening commercial reprisals. You could enter into negotiations to reach a compromise, for example, by offering to reduce your exports by just 5%. However, you could also use every possible means to identify your counterpart’s “real demands.” Indeed, while ...