TOP 4 COMMON NEGOTIATION MISTAKES

At times our negotiation mistakes are obvious. We accidentally let the other party know our bottom line, we criticize the other party when it would just make sense if one was patient or we could just end up mixing our numbers.

Common negotiation mistakes tend not to be this obvious. What happens is that one gets a perfectly good deal and then end up making one or most of these 4 common negotiation mistakes.

4 Common Negotiation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Not preparing enough for the negotiation

Of the common negotiation mistakes not preparing enough and just rushing in to the negotiation takes the top of the list.  Most negotiators will look at it in terms of what they want and assume that’s pretty much it.

Experienced negotiators know that preparation goes beyond knowing what you want or even having a plan for each of the stages in negotiation.

You need to know about your walk away position when negotiating. Developing your best alternative to a negotiated agreement or BATNA, is important. This will mean that you have a plan or strategy for when you don’t reach an agreement. Also try to estimate the other parties walk away position.

Competing more and collaborating less

It makes sense that one could be afraid of being taken advantage of hence the need for adversarial negotiation but negotiators can go to the extreme with this, basically resorting to uncalled for threats and coercive tactics to try to get a win.

For more effective negotiation results you need to focus on creating value.

By building trust and meaningful rapport with the other party you start to avoid most common negotiation mistakes because both sides will feel more comfortable sharing their underlying interests in the negotiation.

What you gain by doing this is that you increase your chances of getting tradeoffs. Basically, smart negotiators aim for win-win solutions.

Letting your emotions win

We all get emotional at times, the problem is if emotions get on the way of doing our best. These can be manifested in the form of biases. Truth is emotions during negotiations can help us know where we are heading, but that is just it.

Unchecked emotions can prevent us from making rational decisions and that is how we make a mistake in negotiation.

Taking a break when negotiations get heated is a good way to let the parties involved cool down. This way when you regroup, you can talk about what happened, giving everyone time to air their concerns.

Taking unethical short cuts

While it may seem like ruthless people are the kind that behave unethically when it comes to negotiating, truth is, most people are willing to cheat from time to time in negotiation and other contexts when financial gain is an incentive, especially if the odds are that they won’t get caught.

It is vital for all of us to pay attention to ethical behaviour and avoid negotiation pitfalls resulting from unethical choices. We should also avoid letting ourselves off the hook for even seemingly minor infractions that go against our moral code.