Negotiation Techniques

When it comes to negotiating there are many different techniques that may be used to gain the deal you are looking for. Some of these techniques are separating the people from the problem, BATNA and handling dirty tricks. In a Ted Talk presentation done by William Ury called “The Walk From No to Yes” he talks about separating the people from the problem. It was very interesting the way he explained the topic. He first told a story about a tribe in South Africa he once helped solve conflict for. He said before getting started they will have one person go and hide all of the poisonous hunting arrows in a bush. They then will sit and talk. If they find it that temperatures are rising they will send each other off to see their relatives to cool off. This was to keep the situation at ease. William described this as the third side. There will always be two sides of a story. For example, your side of the story versus your brother’s story for fighting over a cookie. The third side will be the friend in the mix. The friend is there to remind you the problem at hand. In other words separating the people from the problem. I have learned that this will be a very useful technique to keep people calm during a negotiation. Another useful technique would be the BATNA. Stephen Stuart mentions in one of his lectures that when you are being overwhelmed and failing in a negotiation the BATNA can be used to gain control, confidence and level the playing field. A BATNA is a key item to have when going into a negotiation. It is your back up plan and you should know when to use it. In some cases you would not have to use it. Your BATNA is not something that you should use right in the beginning this can ruin any deal that could have been made. While negotiating one thing you must be aware of is any dirty trick that can be used against you. In a Case Western Reserve University School of Law lecture they talk about hardball tactic. They discuss how they work and how they can fail so badly. Dirty tricks will be use to attack someone emotionally in hopes to gain control of a situation. It is an act of intimidation and you should not allow it to affect the outcome of the negotiation. To avoid dirty tricks I have learned that it is great to point out that you are aware of what they are doing and try to gain the respect that you want. Out of all the many different negotiation techniques, these are the three I feel will be most useful to keep a negotiation under control.