I recently sat in on a lecture from Rob Galford, co-author of “The Trusted Advisor”, which explains how to achieve professional success by earning clients’ trust and confidence. Since all negotiations involve trust, and a broad view of negotiation includes dealing with clients, I was particularly interested in his five stages of building trust.
Each stage includes elements critical to most negotiations, especially those involving clients and future relationships between the parties.
In a perfect world, nobody would completely lose control or say or e-mail things they regret, and all major decisions would be based on the experts’ research. Of course, we don’t live in a perfect world.
So what should we do when our counterparts’ know exactly when and where to push our buttons and we know we can’t easily control our responses?
“She has the power to make or break us. It would be great if we get the patent. But if we don’t, it will be a serious problem for the defensibility of our product. How do we increase our likelihood of success?”
A critical issue here – how to negotiate with government entities – requires specialized negotiation tactics. Here are three.
Focus on your long-term goal
Years ago I asked a panel of expert negotiators to identify their most successful negotiation strategy.
