What is negotiation psychology for nerds?
Many people like playing badminton, and they just pick up a racket, jump onto the court, and start to swing. Most people negotiate the same way.
That is a mistake, a very costly one.
I love playing badminton as well as coaching people how to play. I tell my guys all the time that to play badminton well, you need to work on every little detail, from getting in the ready position, identifying where the shuttle is going, reacting by moving behind the shuttle, hitting the shuttle, and getting back to the ready position for the next shuttle. If you do all these 5 steps right, you have a chance to play a great shot; otherwise, you put yourself in a disadvantaged situation. And the trick part is that these all happen in a very short period of time and continuously.
The same is true for negotiation.
In order to get a good result, one needs to get prepared to negotiate, open and maintain effective communication, secure an agreement, and conclude the deal. These 4 steps could take up to years or as little as a few minutes. Regardless of the time period, every negotiation involves all these steps, and any misstep in any part could potentially derail an otherwise lucrative transaction.
Badminton or negotiation, there are plenty of nuances in each step.
For instance, to get ready in badminton, your feet need to be in the right position (spread about shoulder-wide or slightly wider with the dominant foot slightly in front), hold your racket with its head pointing up, and lower your center of gravity to get ready to turn and move. Regardless of levels, those details determine the efficiency and effectiveness of your play, hence the result.
This is a blog on negotiation, and it will go into great detail about each step in negotiation. After all, this is a blog for nerds. There is nothing more nerdy than getting overly intimate with all the little details.
To give you a road map about what you are getting yourself into. Before negotiation, you prepare mentally and psychologically. Mental preparation takes you deep into the analysis of the negotiation structure and situation. Psychological preparation helps you get ready to overcome potential obstacles and deal with all sorts of contingencies.
The funny thing is, if you prepare extremely well, you may find that the negotiation went surprisingly smoothly and render your previous angst and stress almost undeserving. I, on the contrary, would be the first to congratulate you and tell you that it is because of your thorough and methodical preparation that you achieved your goal without much resistance.
No matter how much you prepare, there might still be things unexpected during the actual negotiation. You will go through the motion to communicate. You'll need to arrange the meeting, plan your schmoozing, your opening offer, your attitude, emotional expressions, and down to the wording and framing. It certainly wouldn't hurt if you are aware of the stage of the communication and adjust accordingly. It also helps if you have a grasp over the emotional states of both yourself and whoever is facing you across the table, especially if you are well versed in mastering the psychology of thoughts and feelings.
Normally, things should get easier and straightforward when parties reach an agreement. However, the risk of buyer's remorse or other complications may still occur. Thus, it is probably not advisable to let your guard down.
The only deal that counts is a done deal.
The rest of the blog posts will go in-depth into each and every part of negotiation. If you are the curious and investigative type, buckle up and I'll take you for a ride deep into the human psyche involved in the intensive back and forth.
With the price of merely a cup of coffee, you can access to all the following posts:
