Common Pitfalls 85

from the table. The artful practitioner of this ploy will watch you
and the clock. She may sense your eagerness to wrap things up so
that you can leave. She may know, for instance, that you have a 6
P.M. flight home tonight, and that you will miss that flight and have
to spend another night in a local hotel if everything cannot be ne-
gotiated within the next half hour. It is during those waning min-
utes that the last-minute grabber will ask for concessions. ‘‘If we
can just settle this one thing, we should be able to wrap this up and
get you on your way.’’
There are two defenses against the last-minute grab. The first is
to keep track of the time and the number of unsettled issues that
remain as time passes. The second is to make a mental calculation
of the cost of the concession relative to the cost of an extra hotel
night and a missed flight. Corporate businesspeople are not always
good at this second defense. A missed night at home costs them
personally; the concession they make is borne by someone else:
shareholders they have probably never met.

Can you think of other ploys your opponent might use? How could
you counter them?

COMMON MISTAKES
Good tactics and knowing how to cope with the other side’s ploys
will take you far as a negotiator. But be wary of tripping yourself
up. Like tennis players, many negotiators lose games through their
own mistakes. Research has found that the following are the most
common kinds of mistakes negotiators make:

Being inadequately prepared. Like anything else in life,

you have to be prepared. Do you know what you want and need?
Do you know what you can give up? Do you know the same about
your opponent? Do you know your best alternative to a deal with

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