Written by Marijn Overvest | Reviewed by Sjoerd Goedhart | Fact Checked by Ruud Emonds | Our editorial policy
23 Negotiation Skills — What Every Professional Should Have?
Key takeaways
- Negotiation skills are essential abilities that can help you succeed in your negotiations.
- Knowing and leveraging your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement boosts confidence.
- Active listening, body language interpretation, and adaptability enhance negotiation effectiveness.
Are you looking for a set of powerful negotiation skills that will help you make better deals? Great! In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most powerful and underrated negotiation skills which have a direct impact on your deal results.
I have created a free-to-download negotiation preparation toolkit template. It’s a PowerPoint file that can help you ace your next negotiation. I even created a video where I’ll explain how you can use this template.
Negotiation Preparation Skills
Here are the steps in preparing for a negotiation. Keep these in mind to ensure that you are ready for anything the other party throws at you!
1. Doing the research
The most important thing in preparing for a negotiation is to gather as much information as possible for yourself in order to be able to estimate the interdependence as well as possible (1) to make a good overview of the deal variables (2) and their importance for both parties (3), and then to think about what (4) and especially how you want to achieve your goal (5).
Every negotiation process starts with preparation, followed by conducting a sharp strategy, and last but least: the negotiation itself. In this article we’ll dive deeper in the research phase of a negotiation.
2. Analyzing your BATNA
It’s your backup plan if your negotiation doesn’t lead to a deal. By determining a BATNA you’ll have more confidence because you have a backup plan if the negotiation doesn’t work out. Because of this, you won’t feel forced to make a bad deal.
Going into any negotiation, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your BATNA. If you’re negotiating with a supplier, be sure about the pricing of alternative suppliers. If you’re negotiating over salary, your alternatives might be a different job offer.
The BATNA is your point of departure. Anything you can ‘win’ in your negotiation makes your BATNA less attractive. In this article we’ll dive deeper in the BATNA strategy.
3. Confidence
Great negotiations can only happen when you have confidence in who you are, what you can provide, and what your objectives are. If these things align, you will stand out from every negotiation deal.
4. Evaluating yourself
Evaluating yourself on past negotiations enables you to identify areas in which you can improve. Thus, developing your negotiation skills more in the process through reflecting on yourself.
Content Related Negotiation Skills
Certain content skills are useful for negotiation, and we wouldn’t want you to go in unprepared. So, this is a list of skills you should hone to come out on top of any negotiation.
5. Technical skills
Having technical expertise in a negotiation is crucial to good deal-making. If you don’t know the technical details of your negotiation, consult someone who does. Knowing more about the technical aspects than your negotiation opponent will give you the upper hand. Make sure, your Procurement Process is crystal clear!
6. Financial skills
Having financial expertise in your negotiation will help you to create a deal that fits your strategic goals. For example, knowing the unit economics of your business case could help you understand whether you should focus on a low unit price or fast delivery time. Having financial skills will also enable you to determine your BATNA better.
7. Legal skills
When the negotiations are reaching the final phase it’s time to include a legal analyst to cover all legal aspects of the deal. That being said, in many negotiations the legal terms have a significant impact on the deal. In that situation, it’s best to be aware of the legal terms right from the start. If you’ve got legal expertise yourself, that’s even better!
Observational Negotiation Skills
Aside from the obvious skills listed above negotiation also takes finesse and subtlety. Here are a list of the more subtle skills that can further equip you for proper negotiation.
8. Active Listening
Active listening isn’t just listening to what the other says. It’s actively involving and paying full attention to what someone has to say. Active listening is a great skill to have, as it will give the speaker the feeling his words matter. This will make the other person more honest, open, and willing to cooperate.
You can train active listening by maintaining eye contact, nodding your head, saying ‘yes’, or nodding when the other one is talking.
9. Body language
Listening to what your negotiation opponent has to say isn’t the only way to absorb information. Having the skill to detect body language has been proven to be just as powerful. For example, your negotiation opponent might say he’s got offers lined up from your competitors. However, when paying close attention, you notice that he’s scratching his neck and his nose when talking about the other offers. This could indicate he’s uncertain about the other offers, or perhaps even lying.
10. Adaptability
Adaptability is a must for every procurement professional. It helps you communicate effectively to different audiences and find solutions quickly in every situation.
11. Patience
Patience helps you see and assess the negotiation thoroughly without rushing the process. Staying level-headed is key to a successful negotiation.
Interpersonal Negotiation Skills
Negotiation is impossible without human interaction which means that negotiation almost always calls for interpersonal negotiation skills. Here is a list of them that you can keep up your sleeve.
12. Building rapport
Building rapport is the process of connecting or creating a relationship with someone. It’s typically referred to as harmonious or ‘getting along’. Sometimes this will happen naturally. You’ve probably had multiple situations where it just happened without any effort. This is usually how a friendship starts. However, building rapport is also something you can develop. It’s a great skill for any negotiation, as your opponent will be more likely to meet your needs.
13. Effective verbal communication
Being able to communicate verbally will go a long way when it comes to effective negotiating. By communicating effectively you’ll notice the negotiation process will be smoother and involve less friction.
14. Problem-solving
Problem-solving starts with identifying and deconstructing the problem. For example, your negotiation opponent might react furiously to your proposal. For many, the negotiation process would end right here. A great problem-solver, however, will try to figure out what part of the proposal upsets the other party. By tackling this in a pragmatic way, you’ll be able to deconstruct the problem and work to a better proposal.
15. Decision-making
As a procurement manager or a negotiator in general, you’ll find yourself making decisions on a regular basis. Being able to make good decisions will go a long way when it comes to making great deals. Here’s how the average decision-making process looks like:
- Define the problem or the opportunity.
- Come up with a list of possible solutions
- Evaluate each option by listing the numbers, pros, and cons
- Make a decision
- Implement your decision
- Evaluate your decision and adjust if required
16. Assertiveness
Being assertive is usually referred to as being able to stand up for your rights, in a calm and gentle way. Negotiators who are assertive are able to communicate their wishes without making others upset, or becoming upset themselves.
The skill of being assertive will help a lot during negotiations. It’s an essential skill during the heat of a negotiation.
17. Dealing with high-pressure situations
As a procurement manager, you’ll find yourself negotiating big deals frequently. A price difference of 2% on a total deal could easily implicate millions of dollars. If you’re a procurement manager who purchasing goods on behalf of, let’s say a supermarket, you’ll experience pressure from your negotiation opponent, your boss, your colleagues, and your competitors. That’s a lot of heat, from a lot of angles. Being able to stay calm and keep making the right decisions is critical for a successful career in dealmaking.
18. Integrity
Integrity or having strong principles is an essential skill for every negotiation. Being honest and respectful will make the other party trust you more. To be trustworthy, you should avoid over-promising.
19. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the same situation as the other party. Thus, enabling you to see from their point of view. Empathy helps you create a win-win mindset when it comes to negotiation.
Negotiation Questioning Skills
In any negotiation it’s important to ask questions but it’s also important to make sure that you ask the right questions. Here are some tips to help you out with this!
20. Asking the right questions
Asking the right questions in a negotiation is a skill that will give you a lot of value when it comes to steering the conversation in your preferred direction. It’s a great way of ‘manipulating’ your negotiation opponent. Here are some of the most powerful questions you can ask in a negotiation:
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- Open-ended questions
These are the kind of questions that require your opponent to go into detail. It’s a great way of getting more information that you can use to formulate a strategy.
For example: “How did you arrive at that price point?”
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- Closed-ended questions
The power of close questions comes into play when it’s important to be on the same page. Use them to test your understanding of the situation: “So, If I give you X, you will give me Y, correct?”
Be aware of misplaced closed questions, it could kill the conversation and lead to awkward silences.
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- Probing questions
Asking probing questions is a strategy to find out more details. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking for an example. Or to investigate whether there is proof for what has been said, “how do you know that you can deliver in time?”
Use questions that include the word “exactly” to probe further: “What exactly do you mean by fast shipping?” or “Who, exactly, can make this decision?”
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- Echo questions
The echo question technique is an effective way to collect more information from your opponent. You do this by repeating the last few words spoken. For example:
“We can deliver you the canned goods fast”
– “You can deliver them fast?”
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- Leading questions
Leading questions can lead your opponent’s way of thinking. You can leverage this in several ways.
With an assumption – “How much cheaper do you think that you can deliver compared to the competition?” This assumes that your opponent is able to deliver cheaper.
By adding a personal appeal to agree at the end – “It would be great if we can create a long-term deal, don’t you think?”
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- Hypothetical questions
A technique that helps every conversation and thus negotiations: talk about ‘what if’. It helps to test your own hypothesis, to determine how serious the other person is and this technique helps negotiations forward when there seems no more room left to move.
“If I were to give you A how would you feel about doing B”?
By asking this question, you’re not making a step offer-wise; you’re using words to find out the level of flexibility at the other side of the table & what it might be possible to agree upon. This can be useful for checking a new idea or to help break deadlock and matters can be discussed without the fear of commitment. If used during the exploratory/testing stage it can open up useful alternatives and help shape a deal.
Negotiation Deal-Making Skills
There are various skills involved in deal making which is why it’s important for a good negotiator to be well-rounded, especially when it comes to these essential deal-making skills.
21. Bargaining
One bargaining tactic which you should try is the “hanging gramophone record”. It’s repairing the same point over and over again. Frequently the other party gets ‘fed up’ with its constant repetition, and feels that further progress appears unlikely until this obstacle is removed. To use this tactic, you need to be very patient & persistent, but if you have both: try and enjoy the guaranteed results!
22. Haggling
Some think of haggling as arguing a price in a negative way. about Haggling doesn’t have to be an exercise in discomfort and failure. Approach it the right way and it will not only be enjoyable but an amazing opportunity to explore boundaries in your negotiation.
23. Saying No
This might be surprising but saying no is a skill nowadays as many professionals are afraid to displease people. Thus, compromising your own purpose that you will find yourself on the losing side.
The word “no” holds power. It saves you time and money. Never be afraid to say no if the situation feels like a losing game.
Conclusion
Successful negotiation is a multifaceted skill set that encompasses thorough preparation, adept observation, and effective communication. The ability to analyze and enhance one’s negotiation preparation is crucial for achieving favorable outcomes.
Whether navigating technical, financial, or legal aspects, embracing adaptability contributes to sustained success in the complex landscape of negotiations. Continuous self-evaluation, confidence-building, and the cultivation of empathy and integrity further refine one’s prowess in deal-making.
By honing these diverse negotiation skills, individuals can navigate high-pressure situations, tackle challenging problems, and foster collaborative relationships, ultimately leading to successful and mutually beneficial agreements.
Frequentlyasked questions
Why is active listening important in negotiations?
Active listening fosters honesty and cooperation, making the other party more open and sincere.
How can I enhance my bargaining skills in negotiations?
Employ the “hanging gramophone record” tactic by patiently repeating key points to ensure progress.
Why is saying "no" a valuable skill in negotiations?
Saying “no” preserves time and resources, preventing unfavorable deals and reinforcing your position.
About the author
My name is Marijn Overvest, I’m the founder of Procurement Tactics. I have a deep passion for procurement, and I’ve upskilled over 200 procurement teams from all over the world. When I’m not working, I love running and cycling.
