The Five Golden Rules of Negotiation

The Players

A sales negotiation rarely boils down to a one-to-one encounter, so you need to identify the different players. Indeed, in everyday life, even when an individual negotiates a purchase on her own, she generally has to compromise with others in her entourage.

Let us take the example of a car. The customer may take into account the opinions of

• his spouse, whose criteria and price sensitivity may be quite different from his own;
• his children;
• potentially, some of his friends or work colleagues whose opinions matter when choosing a model or deciding what is an acceptable price for a particular car;
• his banker, if he wishes to obtain credit.

In the case of business negotiations, the number of people involved is even greater. Looking beyond ...