Blog: The Negotiation Edge

Many humans have a hard time communicating clearly with other people. More often than not, we beat around the bush and talk in roundabout ways instead of being upfront, open, and honest. In many cases, understanding what someone is saying can feel like pulling teeth.

The good news is that by making it a habit to use active communication, you can increase the likelihood you are easily understood, leading to more deals. Here’s how to do that: 

We’re all drawn to interesting people. Here’s how to improve your communication skills and become the most interesting person in the room.

Start with this three-step opening:

• Simultaneously hold out your hand, smile, and introduce yourself with your first name only—nothing more.

• Use Dynamic Silence™. Let them react. Wait for them to give their first name.
• While smiling, ask them: “What about (one-second pause) what you do makes you passionate?”

Here’s your fourth follow-on step: Mirror™ and Label™ from this point on, using Dynamic Silence liberally. This is a version of the one-on-ones we use as the foundation for mastery of the Black Swan Method™—also known as the quick 2+1.

Leaders are charged with promoting their organization’s mission and getting people to produce. To influence your direct reports to do what you want without a begrudging attitude, it’s essential to employ hostage negotiation tactics and principles every day.

In the world of hostage negotiation, your goal is to influence hostage-takers to surrender. But you don’t just start the conversation by telling them to give it up. Instead, you approach the surrender in a subordinate manner, ensuring you are not viewed as a threat.  Making a concentrated effort so that the hostage-taker knows you see things from their perspective. Only at that point can you begin to accomplish your objective.

Yes doesn’t always mean yes. This is why shrewd negotiators don’t aim for yes, but instead try to get their counterparts to say no.

In this installment of our negotiation training series, we examine the top four no-oriented questions™ from The Black Swan Group, what they replace, and why you should use them.

The best negotiators and most effective leaders possess high levels of emotional intelligence, or a high emotional quotient (EQ), meaning the ability to manage your emotions and effectively communicate while empathizing with other people and seeing their perspectives.

Although your IQ is mostly fixed by age 16, you can improve your EQ through your 80s. 

When many people sit down at the table with potential clients, the obvious goal is to make a connection. A good connection can create a lasting partnership that can benefit everyone in meaningful ways. Here’s the problem - frequently they go about this by trying  to establish common ground to form said connection.. When it comes to building a lasting partnership, common ground is a weak foundation.

Instead of establishing common ground, good negotiators build a real connection by expressing genuine understanding through tactical empathy. It’s an easy way to improve sales, and build a vast network of business relationships

If you are genuinely trying to understand the other side and build rapport, then you will be standing on solid ground even if the deal falls apart. Because you know exactly what this person has experienced, you can pick things up where you left off when the situation warrants.

If you’re new to the term, an Accusation Audit™ is a negotiation technique used to proactively address the negatives likely harbored by the other side and defuse them before they blow up the conversation later on.

But when should you use an Accusation Audit internally, and when should you use it with an external counterpart? Let’s find out.

When you deal with a board, you’re in a high-stakes negotiation. Whether your goal is buying a company, getting investment in a fund, or encouraging a pharmaceutical company to pivot from one drug to the next, there is a lot on the line, so you need to bring your A game to get the deal you’re after.

Next time you head into the boardroom, keep these communication and negotiation techniques in mind to increase the chances you achieve your desired outcome.

At Black Swan, we’re huge proponents of using Labels™ to arrive at the best outcomes. With an effective use of Labels, you’re able to unearth what the other side isn’t saying and identify a dynamic in the conversation that isn’t obvious. 

Keep reading to learn more about when, where, and how to use Labels to accomplish your objectives every time you sit down at the table.

When they start new roles, some leaders feel tempted to institute changes right away to make an immediate impact.

Unless it’s an emergency, there is no need for it.

This mindset is born from insecurity. All too often, new leaders enter the mix and are worried about how people view them, causing them to try and make their mark on a new role. They are trying to impress, saying to both superiors and subordinates: Look at me.