Blog: The Negotiation Edge

Anchoring, or establishing a reference point in a negotiation, is a technique that can help you get the best deals. But it doesn’t always work that way.

Today, we’ll explore four rules of anchoring that can help you better understand how you can use this technique to get better deals.

There are four reasons that logrolling negotiation—a negotiation strategy that’s solely based on making trade-offs—is garbage

1. It’s a compromise.
2. It’s lazy.
3. It assumes a zero-sum game.
4. It lacks tactical empathy. 

The most dangerous negotiation is the one you don’t know you’re in. 

How do you set a tone of collaboration that sticks—especially with someone that sees the negotiation as win-lose, and they want you to lose?

It’s easier than you might think. 

The most dangerous negotiation is the one you don’t know you’re in.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to become aware of this: If the words I want or I need are about to come out of your mouth, then you’re about to enter into a negotiation.

Next time this is happening to you, try this little exercise that works like a charm every time. It’s easy peasy, and it’s great practice for the cold read and a quick accusations audit.

As MIT Professor Peter Senge once said, “the only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.”

How do you learn faster than the competition? Read. 

As a bonus, reading is also enjoyable and fulfilling. 

With that in mind, here are 12 books that should be in any expert negotiator's library.

To many, leadership failure looks like a toxic boss scolding their employees and causing a mass exodus.

But true leadership failure comes in other forms.

For example, when organizations don’t understand the value of empathy.

Yes is a useless word.

When anything is really important, we don’t even bother with yes. It’s B.S. anyway and almost always fake.

When it’s important and we have to close, our goal is to get a no.

Leaders have the power to make or break a company.

At Black Swan, we have a handful of negotiation terms that you’ve likely heard us say over and over again. Why? We are not in the business of reinforcing things that don’t affect your ability to influence your bottom line.