Negotiation: Be Deliberate About the Process
August 3rd, 2008
Carol Frohlinger, Esq., co-author of Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success and co-Founder of Negotiating Women, Inc. is back with some final negotiation tips for our Seeds for Success finalists.
In addition to the negotiation planning process I wrote about earlier, I also offered some suggestions to the Seeds For Success finalists about negotiation process.
1. Create your business’ “standard” way of doing things and use that as a way to kick off a negotiation. For example, a “Usual Terms and Conditions” one-pager that you can use to describe the ways you do business. This is not to say that you can’t change any or all of these but it can make opening the conversation easier and can keep you on track so that you remember to bring up the things that are important for you to discuss.
2. Choose the method you’ll use to negotiate. Think about the people with whom you will be negotiating and plan a strategy. For example, Karla plans a trip to China to meet her suppliers in person later this year. While email has had to suffice in the meantime, she wants to build the relationship by spending some time fact to face.
3. Strike the business deal first, then ask your attorney to document it, advising you of the legal issues you should consider. Don’t delegate negotiating the business part of things to your lawyer – that’s not her expertise..
Paying attention to the negotiation process won’t solve all the issues that you’ll be negotiating about, but my experience is that it can certainly help!
© 2008 Negotiating Women, Inc.
www.negotiatingwomen.com
