Gavin Presman - A Practical Guide to Negotiation: Create Winning Agreements

Praise for Negotiation: How to Craft Agreements that Give Everyone More

In todays business world, many people forget the simple message of this book: that collaboration is a useful and successful strategy for success. I particularly like the practical advice and step-by-step guides to applying this strategy in all areas of your life where you need to seek agreement. If there is one book about negotiation I can thoroughly recommend you have on your shelf, its this one.

Kathleen Saxton, Founder and CEO, The Lighthouse Company

Gavins is a special gift. If you have spent time with him, you will want to spend time with this book. If this is your first exposure to his talent, you are in for a treat.

Marc Nohr, CEO, Fold7, former FT Columnist and Founder of Kitcatt Nohr

Its great to read such an honest, practical and enjoyable guide to the art of negotiation. Ive been using this type of material with my own clients for many years, so I know how helpful it will be for anyone who needs to negotiate to get results. Its definitely something I would recommend to any salesperson, buyer or manager in any field.

Mike Morton, Leadership and Influence Trainer

Gavins book is transformational because it provides the solid steps needed for effective negotiation in a simple format that allows people to use it. Ive been sharing the practical stories, tools and techniques with my coachees and training participants, and can see how effective this approach is in real life.

Steven Fine, Master Practitioner, Lumina Learning

In every area of our business, negotiation skills play a vital role. Its great to see a book that shares our culture of long-term cooperation, and also gives the reader practical skills they can apply to create better agreements. I will recommend that everyone in my team reads this book; if you want your teams to be more successful, I suggest you recommend that they read it too.

Naren Patel, CEO, Primesight

NEGOTIATION

Gavin Presman

NEGOTIATION

HOW TO CRAFT AGREEMENTS THAT GIVE EVERYONE MORE

Published in the UK in 2016 by

Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre,

3941 North Road, London N7 9DP

email:

www.iconbooks.com

Sold in the UK, Europe and Asia

by Faber & Faber Ltd, Bloomsbury House,

7477 Great Russell Street,

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Distributed in Australia and New Zealand

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Distributed in the USA

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ISBN: 978-184831-937-0

Text copyright 2016 Gavin Presman

The author has asserted his moral rights

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Typeset in Adobe Caslon by Marie Doherty

Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

About the Author

Gavin runs a personal and professional training venture, Inspire, which he launched in 2002. His clients range from leading media and technology businesses, including Microsoft, Guardian Media Group and Twitter, to creative businesses, including Global Radio, Bauer, the How To Academy and We Are Social. He regularly delivers negotiation and influence training across the world, through Inspire, Lumina Learning and DOOR International. A graduate of the One Thought Professional Institute, he runs coaching and training in the business world with Inspiring Insight, and works with pupils and teachers to bring resilience and insight into schools through the Innate Health Centre. He is also the chair of governors at Eden Primary, a new free school he helped found, and a mentor at The House of St Barnabas Employment Academy.

Gavin is the son of a teacher/politician/preacher (and stand-in rabbi) and a City lawyer. Evenings in the Presman household involved little TV and much debate, and Gavin learned from his father the importance of understanding all sides of an argument, from his mother how to use a good story, and from his grandfather how to make a good deal. His Booba didnt teach him much in the field of negotiation, but made a sensational chicken soup.

This book is dedicated to my best friend, my amazing wife Jools, who with her support made it possible.

Angel, without you I am nothing, and to me you are everything.

Foreword

by Bruce Daisley, VP Europe, Twitter

If youve never faced a tricky negotiation in your life, then youre in a very small and very lucky minority. Strangely, for something so everyday, most of us feel daunted and unprepared for these encounters. The prospect of a negotiation can be one of the most anxious anticipations in our lives we dread the very idea. It seems to represent only the opportunity to lose out. Additionally, we read negotiation as confrontation. And the fight or flight part of our brain wants to scarper for the hills.

Our lives are brim-full of stories of negotiation. A friend of mine told me how he was ostracized on his week-long dream holiday in the Caribbean when fellow holiday-makers heard he had got it cheap. This is the visceral fear of bargaining situations we dread them even when they dont involve us. Many of us harbour a fear that our inexpert talents mean that others are getting more out of deals than we are. All of this makes negotiating feel such high stakes.

The remarkable thing about something that can provoke such sleepless nights, is that learning to negotiate better is one of simplest skills that we can begin to master. And literally one of the most rewarding. Its why I was delighted when Gavin Presman one of my career mentors decided to write this book. Negotiation is an art that has been honed over centuries. An art that merges an understanding of everything from the human psyche to game theory. But its also something that can quickly demonstrate our lack of experience. Gavins approach is concise, clear and easy to use and its no surprise that he was asked to commit it to print.

In his use of simple, real-life examples, Gavin stands on the shoulders of giants bringing in the expertise of some of the zestiest intellects, while making their work easy to understand. The truth about negotiation is that there are no new secret formulas needed. We just need to pay homage to the minds who went before us. Gavin has harvested their labours and imparts them in a way thats easy to use.

Having been trained by Gavin and having learned from him in the past, this book has been a brilliantly stimulating reminder of how a handful of simple techniques can transform what we achieve when properly prepared. Gavin has created the go-to book for everyone.

INTRODUCTION

Why Good Negotiation Practice Leads to Better Personal and Professional Relationships

When I started out in business, if I lost, or lost out, in a negotiation, whatever the context and no matter how much I attempted to post-rationalize, it always felt personal. I had usually expended considerable emotional energy to get myself through it, and the ramifications often continued to haunt me long after I had picked myself up and brushed myself off.