Blog: The Negotiation Edge

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.

The Black Swan Group often recommends using Labels™ to describe emotions that are displayed, verbalized, or implied but not directly articulated. In this negotiation skills training post, we will explore Mislabels—the Label’s counterpart.

Black Swans are small bits of information the other side holds that— if uncovered—would dramatically change the course of the dialogue and, ultimately, the result of the negotiation.

The best way to discover a Black Swan is by staying curious in each conversation. Every time you sit down at the table, repeat a mantra to yourself: I have something to learn here.

This mindset forces you to listen to what’s not being said rather than the actual words. By staying curious, you reduce the chances of getting triggered during a conversation if the other side threatens, attacks, or makes outrageous demands.

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.

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.

No matter how effective your sales team is, it can always improve.

If you’re on the fence about whether it’s worthwhile to invest in sales negotiation training, keep reading to learn four of the top  reasons you may or may not decide to  bite the bullet and set aside the resources needed to get your team to the next level.

When a woman sits down at the negotiating table, her counterpart may harbor a number of preconceived notions about her, sometimes consciously but frequently not. Though it certainly doesn’t feel fair because these stereotypes have nothing to do with you as the woman at the table, you will nevertheless need to guard against them to get the results she’s aiming for.

Whether someone is buying a new car or making a multi-million dollar business deal, who wants to pay a single penny more than they absolutely need to?

Using The Black Swan Method™ to guide your price negotiation strategy, it is possible to get the best deal every time.

Negotiation is a science as well as an art. When you have all the right ingredients, magic can happen. The Black Swan Group’s negotiation concepts all boil down to nine crucial skills, the Negotiation 9™ (N9™).

In every negotiation, each side has things they need to have and things they want to have.