In 5 Things You Have To Do Before You Start Any Negotiation, sales expert Dr. Jim Anderson writes:
To help get you properly prepared for your next sales negotiation, I’ve got some suggestions. Here are five steps that you need to take before you sit down at the negotiating table:
Create A “Want” List: How can you be successful during a negotiation if you don’t know what you want? Take the time to create a list of what you want to get out of the negotiation. Be careful here: not all wants are created the same. Make sure that you distinguish between the ones that you can’t live without and the ones that would just be nice to have.
Pick A Start And An End Point: Before you start any negotiation, you can pretty much identify the main issues that will be coming up during the negotiation. Take the time to determine what your starting offer is going to be for each of these points. Many negotiators do this step and then forget to do the next part – make up your mind as to where you are going to be willing to end up on this point.
For more, see theaccidentalnegotiator.com.