Jan 23 2008
The 40 Most Common Mistakes Made By Negotiators
Most negotiation coaching courses are very good at telling you what to do right but in my experience, very few tell you what you are doing wrong. Last week I was coaching a group of senior sales professionals and I produced this list; whilst not exhaustive, it should act as a guide.
The 40 most common mistakes made by negotiators - recognise any of these from the last time you were involved in a negotiation?
• Failing to prepare effectively for negotiation.
• Underestimating your own power.
• Assuming the other party knows your weaknesses and strengths.
• Being intimidated by the status of the person with whom you are negotiating.
• Concentrating on your problems rather than those of the other party.
• Forgetting the other side has things to gain from agreement as well as yourself.
• Making assumptions about what the other side wants.
• Having low aspirations for yourself.
• Giving too much credence to time deadlines set by the other side.
• Assuming the other side is aware of the short and long-term benefits of reaching agreement.
• Being intimidated by rules set by the other side.
• Misunderstanding tactics used by the other side.
• Talking too much.
• Failing to listen effectively.
• Believing everything the other side says about you, your service, your competition etc.
• Being forced into discussing price too early in the negotiation.
• Revealing your hand too early.
• Aiming too low with your opening bid.
• Accepting the first offer.
• Giving away concessions for nothing.
• Conceding an important issue too quickly.
• Making concessions too easily and raising the other sides. expectations.
• Feeling guilty about asking for a concession.
• Making concessions before knowing all the other sides demands.
• Failing to make concessions conditional on final agreement being reached.
• Making concessions of equal size to those on offer.
• Paying too much attention to price rather than value
• Discussing issues for which you are not prepared.
• Being inflexible.
• Losing sight of the overall agreement when deadlock is reached over minor issues.
• Responding to a high demand with a counter offer instead of challenging the validity of the high demand.
• Assuming deadlock means agreement is not possible.
• Feeling deadlock is only unpleasant for you and not the other party.
• Trying to be liked during the final stages.
• Bluffing without having a strategy ready should your bluff be called.
• Taking things personally.
• Offering to split the difference…
• Being intimidated by “This is my final offer”!
• Not preparing for the possibility you may need to walk away.
• Carrying out a post-mortem with the other side.
Today’s News: My pal Steve Martinez is always looking outside the square and is never afraid to challenge paradigms, particularly with his marketing. This week, he is asking us to test our selling skills against a robot! Yep, really, and it is a superb challenge, which you will lose 
He also provides lots of excellent free tools, so do take the test here
Tomorrow: It’s a first time appearance on The JF Guest Author Spot for my good buddy Clayton Shold, with some very profound words of wisdom.
