NEGOTIATIONS

In this unit you will learn:

• How to successfully take part in professional negotiations.

What is negotiation?
Negotiations are discussions between people who have different aims or intentions.

Main features
Here are the main features of negotiations. Match the explanation with the correct feature.
FEATURE
1 Reaching an agreement
2 Improvement expectations
3 Giving up
4 Speaker vs. speaker

EXPLANATION
A Generally, both parties must give up some of their demands so the final agreement
is balanced. If only one party gives something up it would mean that the other side
has imposed their viewpoint and has been more persuasive.
B Agreement is the aim. There must be a middle ground between viewpoints in which
all parties can reach conformity.
C In negotiations all speakers represent a position in conflict. There can be groups
representing the parties.
D The speakers defend a situation, a change in it, a profit, and an investment and
from the agreement achieved they all expect an enhancement. Without this idea in
mind there is no negotiation.
How to approach negotiations
There is a nine-step method to carry out negotiations successfully. Here are the steps.
Put them in order!
STEPS TO FOLLOW IN A NEGOTIATION PROCESS
Establish all your position’s claims and possible solutions. Know what you can give
away in exchange for something you need. Keep this information reserved for
when you run out of possibilities as a “wild card”.
Try to maintain a warm, calm and stable tone. Avoid falling victim to provocation
and never pay attention to possible insults or disrespect. Stick to your viewpoint.
Ready your body and your mind for the negotiations. Do breathing exercises and
adopt a confident posture to keep for a long time. Practice in front of the mirror
expressions and gestures while stating your claims and the other side’s claims. Try
to relax and not give away your emotions.
Avoid using protective or closed body language, such as crossing your arms,
being stiff and distant or fiddling around. However, neither should you be open. In
the key moments, when the time to be persuasive comes, your attitude must be
proactive and energetic while remaining calm and distant. A positive approach will
always help you overcome any situation in a negotiation process.
Outline the reasons for each of the aspects pointed out. There must be at least
one or two adjectives that qualify them. Make sure that your position is
comprehensible and understandable so that the other party can join in.
Listen very carefully and take notes. All that the other party says can be useful.
State your demands almost from the beginning. Understand from their words and
body language anything that the other party might give away. There are always
things that are more or less important for them and catching this would become a
“wild card”.
Establish all the points that you are going to negotiate. Write down on one side of
a piece of paper the aspects you want to achieve. On the opposite side write down
what the other side is demanding. In between them, centered, what can be
negotiated and could be given away in order to get an agreement.
All in all, it is just like keeping the attitude and pose of a constant persuasive
 speech.
Know as much as possible about the “rival”: kind of person, background,
approach, tics, capabilities, etc. Make a list of their possible demands and
solutions in your hands. Decide which of them might become admissible and how.

Extra tip!
Remember that negotiations are – in most cases – very long and tiring. Be ready to
make the effort.
Usually the parties go over and over the same points without letting go of anything.
Going in circles is not good, but many negotiations are like this in order to get to the root
of the problems. That helps understand and find an alternative solution (which is what
happens many times).

Work on it!
Analyze the negotiation strategies used in “Shark Tank” or “Dragon’s Den”. How do they
do it?
Who has an advantage?
How do they show their “wild cards”?
How would you do it?
Exercise
Work in pairs. Every couple of classmates must choose an opposite viewpoint on a topic
from this list below or decided in class. Then, for ten minutes both teams must negotiate
and reach an agreement.
Possible topics:
▪ One couple defends the workers’ viewpoint and the other the employer’s on a
salary raise.
▪ According to the budget, there is not sufficient money for more than three of the
five research projects that have applied. How can it be sorted out? One pair takes
the university’s side and the other the researchers’.
▪ Must the price of fuel increase or decrease? One pair is on the side of producers
and the other on the side of the consumers.
▪ The solution for traffic jams is to forbid cars in cities or to change infrastructures?
Choose a viewpoint.