UNIT-4

Persuasion and Negotiation Skills

Define Persuasion.
Persuasion is the process of convincing someone else to carry out an action or agree with an idea.
In the workplace, persuasion is used to sell products, recruit team members and increase
productivity. An employee with strong persuasion skills can influence others to perform well and
succeed.

A persuasive employee is also able to expedite and facilitate group decision-making. When used
well, persuasion is a valuable soft skill that can have a significant impact in any workplace.

Process of Persuasion

Persuasion is the attempt to change a reader’s attitude, beliefs or action in your favor. The
truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know
what your saying, and they can't know what you've saying if they don't listen to you, and
they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting until you say
things imaginatively, originally and freshly.

5 STEPS PROCEDURE:
1. GAINING ATTENTION: Persuasion cannot begin until audience doesn’t pay attention.
Different techniques are used to get attention in different situations.
COMPREHENDING :Your audience must understand the message before it can be
influenced by it. A fundamental understanding of the data being presented is essential to
enable the person being persuaded to take a stand for the issue.

REDUCING RESISTANCE :Try what-if scenarios. Offer counter argument for each of
these scenarios.Present counter arguments in sentences that emphasize reader’s
benefits.Receiver will be less resistant if your request is reasonable and you are believable.

RETAINING:At this stage of the persuasion process the listener must retain the information
long enough to act on it. your message is more likely to be retained, if it is interest to the
listener. when we succeed at changing someone’s attitude, that change probably won’t last
forever. The truth is that some other persuasive message (or experience) could change their
attitudes again. This is why it is so essential that the individual being persuaded both
understands and can retain your message.

ACTING: The measure of persuasive success is whether the listener is motivated to proceed
to a course of action presented by the persuader. For motivating action in:Favor request:
ask for particular action. Make action easy to take. Show courtesy and respect. Claim
request: tell exactly what you want done Sales message: offer a gift, promise an incentive,
limit the offer, set a deadline or guarantee satisfaction.

DEFINE BEHAVIOUR.
Behavior is the actions and mannerisms made by
individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in conjunction with themselves or their
environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the
(inanimate) physical environment.

Types of Behaviour :-
Aggressive Communication
Aggressive communication displays a lack of regard for other people and assumes that
others are inferior. Someone whose communication behaviors are aggressive interrupts
others frequently, disregards what others say and has no qualms about literally taking over
someone else’s space. An aggressive communicator attacks, verbally or physically, and
thinks that all problems are someone else’s fault and also believes that everyone else is
obligated to provide whatever he or she wants, writes psychotherapist Jinnie Cristerna in
the Today's Chicago Woman article "4 Styles of Communication." These communicators
use intimidation and humiliation to get what they want, and they feel their behavior is
justified.

Assertive Communication
Assertive behaviors are those that firmly demonstrate a person’s desires and sense of self
without overstepping boundaries. People with an assertive style of communication speak
clearly and confidently, control their emotions and respect the needs of others while still
getting their own needs met. These person strikes others as a good listener, a fair person,
and someone who feels content with his or her life.

Passive Communication
Unlike assertive behavior, passive behavior expresses little or no confidence. Someone
whose communication style is passive sends signals of weakness via behaviors such as poor
posture, a quiet voice and a lack of eye contact. This communication style is replete with
an avoidance of expressing opinions and needs. This individual may even appear apologetic
for having any needs.

Passive-Aggressive Communication
Much like passive communication behaviors, passive-aggressive behaviors display a lack
of confidence and strength; however, as with aggressive communication, passive-aggressive
communicators show a need to express emotions -- but in a fearful way. People who
communicate in this way may avoid the objects of the their anger while releasing anger
indirectly, such as through backhanded compliments or talking negatively about others
behind their backs. The passive-aggressive communicator is the person who smiles at you
when he or she is actually angry with you, the person who appears calm and cooperative
but subtly disrupts& spread rumors.

Define Attitude:
Attitude is defined as a more or less stable set of predispositions of opinion, interest or
purpose involving expectancy of a certain kind of experience and readiness with an
appropriate response.

Attitudes are evaluation statements either favourable or unfavourable or unfavourable

concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about something.
Meaning:
In simple words, an “attitude” is an individual’s way of looking or an individual’s point of
view at something.
To be more specific, an “attitude” may be defined as the mental state of an individual,
which prepares him to react or make him behave in a particular pre-determined way. It is
actually an acquired feeling.
Attitude is the mixture of beliefs and feelings that people have about situations, specific
ideas or other people.

Components of Attitude
1. Cognitive component
2. Affective component
3. Behavioral component

1. Cognitive Component
Cognitive component of attitude is associated with the value statement. It consists of
values, belief, ideas and other information that a person may have faith in.
Example: quality of sincerity a leader may have.

2.Affective component:
Affective component of attitude is associated with individual feelings about another person,
which may be positive, neutral or negative.
Example: I don’t like Sam because he is not honest, or I like Sam because he is sincere. It is
an expression of feelings about a person, object or a situation.

3. Behavioral component: This attitude is associated with the impact of various condition
or situations that lead to person behavior based on cognitive and affective components.
Example: I don’t like Sam because he is not honest is an affective component, I, therefore,
would like to disassociate myself with him, is a behavioral component and therefore I
would avoid Sam.

Beliefs
Beliefs are ideas based on our previous experiences and convictions and may not necessarily
be based on logic or fact. You no doubt have beliefs on political, economic, and religious
issues. These beliefs may not have been formed through rigorous study, but you nevertheless
hold them as important aspects of self. Beliefs often serve as a frame of reference through
which we interpret our world. Although they can be changed, it often takes time or strong
evidence to persuade someone to change a belief.

Values are core concepts and ideas of what we consider good or bad, right or wrong, or
what is worth the sacrifice. Our values are central to our self-image, what makes us who we
are. Like beliefs, our values may not be based on empirical research or rational thinking,
but they are even more resistant to change than are beliefs. To undergo a change in values,
a person may need to undergo a transformative life experience.

For example, suppose you highly value the freedom to make personal decisions, including
the freedom to choose whether or not to wear a helmet while driving a motorcycle. This value
of individual choice is central to your way of thinking and you are unlikely to change this
value. However, if your brother was driving a motorcycle without a helmet and suffered an
accident that fractured his skull and left him with permanent brain damage, you might
reconsider this value. While you might still value freedom of choice in many areas of life, you
might become an advocate for helmet laws—and perhaps also for other forms of highway
safety, such as stiffer penalties for cell-phone talking and texting while driving.

Audience analysis
Audience analysis refers to researching the interests, preferences, demographic, location,
and other aspects of a group.

While your own audience is a great place to start with audience analysis, looking at your
competitor’s audience and comparing it to your own can help you gain insights into how to
stay ahead of the competition.

The detailed audience analysis includes studying the following main points:

1. What are the audience interested in?

2. What does the audience want?
3. What does the audience already know and needs to know
4. What are their expectation from this presentation?
5. How will the audience benefit from this presentation?
6. What and how presenter wants to convey the audience

Locate an audience
One of the simplest insights to gain about an audience is location. You can identify where
people are discussing a brand, product, or any other topic. You can also filter other analysis
results by location to better understand an audience in a specific place.
Understand key demographics
Is the audience mostly male or female? What is the age breakdown for the audience? These
questions help you gain some basic knowledge about the audience you are analysing.
Find new audiences
 Understanding your existing audience is the first step to identifying opportunities to expand
your audience. Speaker should know the characteristics of the audience.

Identify influencers
Who influences your audience? Who influences your potential new audiences? Identifying
influencers within an audience can help you determine your strategy for engaging that
audience.

Is there an opportunity for paying the influencer to promote your brand? Are there specific
celebrities that would resonate with your audience in an ad campaign?

Having the answers to these questions will help you boost the performance of your campaigns
by knowing who to partner with and how to connect with your audience.

The simple demographics to classify an audience is their location, gender, race, sexuality,
religion, age, and occupation. ... An audience is commonly classified by class, which is
normally determined by wage and occupation. This way, companies can aim their product
at specific groups of people.

The 4 Types of Audience

There are four types of audience, and consequent persuasive strategy that you can come
upon when you are seeking to move a group to action through your speech.

1. Friendly. Your purpose: reinforcing their beliefs.

2. Apathetic. Your purpose is to first to convince them that it matters for them.
3. Uninformed. Your requirement is to educate before you can begin to propose a course of
action.
4. Hostile. You purpose is to respect them and their viewpoint. The most you may be able to
gain is respect to listen to your views. It is key that you can present some information that
is viewed as new to the audience before asking for any change in their position. This is
firstly courteous, but also gives the listener’s ego room to change without feeling demeaned
(“based on this new information, I ask you to change”)

Define Egoistic .
The term “egoism” derives from “ego,” the Latin term for “I” in English.

Egoism should be distinguished from egotism, which means a psychological overvaluation of

one’s own importance, or of one’s own activities.

In philosophy, egoism is the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the
goal of one’s own action. Egoism has two variants, descriptive or normative. The descriptive
(or positive) variant conceives egoism as a factual description of human affairs. That is,
people are motivated by their own interests and desires, and they cannot be described
otherwise. The normative variant proposes that people should be so motivated, regardless of
what presently motivates their behavior.

Qualities:
1) Egoistic people have a sense of entitlement.

2) Hold a grudge.

3) Blame others for their failures.

4) Think they know it all.

5) Operate from a transactional perspective.

6) Fear change

7) Take all the credit for their victories

8) Talk about people

9) Hoard information and data

10) Exude anger

11) Secretly hope others fail

12) Don’t know what they want to be

13) Never set goals

Non – Egoistic
People with non- egoistic approach generally talk about ideas. They share information and
ideas with each other. They exclude joy. They remain happy with the development and
embrace change. They keep a to- do / project list. They set goals and develop life plans. They
have continuously learning spirit. They set goals and develop life plans. They operate from
a transformational perspective. They accept responsibility of failures and forgive others.
They have a sense of gratitude and complimenting each other.

Feed your soul not your ego

Features
DEFINE NEGOTIATION:
Negotiation is a type of discussion used to settle disputes and reach agreements between two
or more parties.

Generally, a negotiation results in a compromise where each party makes a concession for
the benefit of everyone involved.

Negotiations occur frequently within the workplace and may occur between coworkers,
departments or between an employee and employer. Professionals may negotiate contract
terms, project timelines, compensation and more.

Negotiations are both common and important, so it’s helpful to understand the types of
negotiations you might encounter as well as how to improve your negotiation skills.

What are the Steps of Negotiation Process?

The negotiation process can essentially be understood as a four-stage process. The four stages
of the negotiation process are preparation, opening, bargaining, and closure.

Stage 1: Preparation
Preparation is instrumental to the success of the negotiation process. Being well-prepared
generates confidence and gives an edge to the negotiator. Preparation involves the following
activities:

1. Gathering Information: One needs to learn as much as one can about the problem and
ascertain what information is needed from the other side. Understanding clearly the issues
involved are also needed.

2. Leverage Evaluation: Evaluation of one’s leverage and the other party’s leverage at the
outset is important because there may be a number of things one can do to improve one’s
leverage or diminish the leverage of the other side.

3. Understand the people involved: It is important to know the people with whom the
negotiation is to take place. An understanding of their objectives, roles and the issues likely
to be raised by them will facilitate better handling of the situation during the negotiation
process.

4. Rapport: It is helpful to establish a rapport with the opponent during the early stages, that
is, before the bargaining process begins is helpful. This was, one can determine early on how
cooperative the opponent is going to be.

5. Know your objectives: Clarity of objectives is absolutely essential. It needs to be decided

in advance how much you are willing to concede to the opponent and what your priorities
are. All arguments and justifications should be ready.

6. Type of negotiation: Anticipate the type of negotiation expected, that is, ascertain whether
it will be highly competitive, cooperative or something unusual; whether the negotiation will
be face to face, by fax, through a mediator, or in some other manner.

7. Plan: Decide on the negotiation approach and plan accordingly.

Stage 2: Opening Phase

Here the two sides come face to face. Each party tries to make an impression on the other
side and influence their thinking at the first opportunity. Psychologically, this phase is
important because it sets the tone for the negotiation to a large extent. It involves both
negotiating parties presenting their cases to each other.

Stage 3: Bargaining Phase

The bargaining phase involves coming closer to the objective you intended to achieve when
you started the negotiation. In this phase, the basic strategy is to convince the other side of
the appropriateness of your demands and then persuading the other party to concede to
those demands. For this, one needs to be logical in one’s approach and frame clearly-thought-
out and planned arguments.

Stage 4: Closure Phase

The closing phase of a negotiation represents the opportunity to capitalize on all of the work
done in the earlier phases. The research that has been done in the preparation phase,
combined with all of the information that has been gained is useful in the closing phase. It
also involves the sealing of the agreement in which both parties formalize the agreement in
a written contract or letter of intent. Reviewing the negotiation is as important as the
negotiation process itself. It teaches lessons on how to achieve a better outcome. Therefore,
one should take the time to review each element and find out what went well and what needs
to be improved.

What are the Qualities of Good Negotiator?

Qualities of a good negotiator are as follows :

1. Identify the final goal.

2. Practice building rapport.
3. Be willing to compromise.
4. Consider imposing time restrictions.
5. Take the multiple offer approach.
6. Exercise confidence.
7. Don’t take “no” personally.
8. Understand your weaknesses.
9. Practice.

1. Identify the final goal

What are the minimum terms you need? How much are you willing to negotiate? It’s
important you enter negotiations knowing what you want out of an agreement and how much
you’re willing to compromise. For example, your ultimate goal may be to negotiate a salary
of $80,000, but you would be willing to settle for $75,000.
2. Practice building rapport

Successful negotiation requires you to effectively communicate not only your own goals but
also to understand the other party’s wants and needs as well. In order to reach an agreement,
building rapport is essential. This can assist you in easing tension. In order to build rapport,
showing respect for other parties and using active listening skills are critical.

3. Be willing to compromise

Without compromise, it can be nearly impossible to reach an agreement. By preparing ahead

of time, you will already have an idea of the terms you’re willing to sacrifice as well as the
ones that, if they aren’t met, you would be willing to walk away from the deal.

4. Consider imposing time restrictions

Setting a timeline on the negotiations motivates both parties to reach an agreement. If terms
cannot be met at that time, the two parties can take time to reevaluate their needs and return
at a later date.

5. Take the multiple offer approach

By presenting multiple offers at once, you can save time in the negotiation process and
increase the likelihood that you’ll agree on at least one of your preferred outcomes. If the
other party declines, you can then ask for feedback on each one and revise terms until you
reach an agreement that meets everyone’s needs.

6. Exercise confidence

It can be challenging to ask for what you want. However, successful negotiation requires self-
assurance. By exercising confidence in your negotiation, the other parties can be more
inclined to believe in the benefits of your proposal.

7. Don’t take “no” personally

Sometimes, each party’s goals and needs are too different to reach a compromise. When this
happens, evaluate the process, consider why things that did not go as planned and look for
ways you may be able to improve your efforts next time.

8. Understand your weaknesses

Take time to identify your areas of weakness and focus on growing those skills. For example,
you may need to improve your ability to build rapport or your power of persuasion.
Understanding your weaknesses is the first step to overcoming them.

9. Practice
One of the best ways to increase your comfort in negotiations is to practice often. Consider
trying a mock negotiation with a trusted friend or colleague.

What are the Characteristics of Negotiation?

There are certain characteristics of the negotiation process.

These are:

1. There is a minimum of two parties present in any negotiation.

2Both parties have pre-determined goals that they wish to achieve.

3 There is a clash of pre-determined goals, that is, some of the pre-determined goals are not
shared by both the parties.

4There is an expectation of outcome by both parties in any negotiation.

5 Both parties believe the outcome of the negotiation to be satisfactory.

6 Both parties are willing to compromise, that is, modify their position.

7 The incompatibility of goals may make the modification of positions difficult.

8The parties understand the purpose of negotiation

What are the Approaches to Negotiation?

As with conflict management, negotiation can be handled in different ways. The outcome of
a negotiation depends on the approach.

Bargaining Orientation:
This approach is based on the premise that one person can win only at the expense of the
other – that any victory by one party must be matched by the other’s loss. That is why this
is also called the win-lose approach.
Although this approach is marked by competitiveness and may create ill will, this is
sometimes the best approach when the other party is determined to take advantage of you
or when your interests truly conflict with those of the other party and compromising is not
a satisfactory option.

Lose-Lose Orientation: This is adopted when one negotiating partner feels his own
interests are threatened and reacts by doing all he can to ensure that the outcome of the
negotiation does not serve the other party’s interests either. In effect, everybody ends up
being a loser.

Lose-lose outcomes occur when negotiating partners ignore one another’s needs or when the
need to hurt each other outweighs the need to find some kind of an acceptable solution.

Compromise:
A lose-lose situation is hardly a desirable outcome. To avoid this, sometimes people
compromise. Both parties give up a part of what they had originally sought, and settle for
something less than that. A compromise is the best way out when it is impossible for both
parties to convince each other or when even the partial attainment of one party’s goals
depends’ on the satisfaction of the other.

Compromise is a good option when disputed resources are limited. For instance, if two
managers each need a full-time secretary, but budget restrictions make this impossible; they
may have to compromise by sharing one secretary.

Win-Win Orientation:
When the needs of the negotiating parties a 45.1 looks at some of the aspects of this approach. The win
-win approach is superior to other problem-solving styles, because everyone ends up feeling satisfied.
However, such a solution is only possible when the needs of the parties involved do not conflict.

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