Simon Horton - Negotiation Mastery: Tools for the 21st Century Negotiator

Title Page

NEGOTIATION MASTERY

Tools for the 21 st Century Negotiator

by

Simon Horton

Publisher Information

First edition published in 2012 by

MX Publishing

335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive

London, N11 3GX

www.mxpublishing.co.uk

Digital edition converted and distributed in 2012 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2012 Simon Horton

The right of Simon Horton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book, as of the date of publication, nothing herein should be construed as giving advice. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not of MX Publishing.

Cover design by www.staunch.com

Foreword

In the end, we all die. That is non-negotiable. Everything else, though, is up for grabs.

This book will not help you get a better deal with Death; save your energy, no one wins an argument with Death.

But most other things, we can help. Money, anybody? Sex? Negotiation is the very stuff of sex and money! Global domination? Trust me, you will have to do a lot of negotiating.

Maybe your plans are a little more everyday. Need to resolve that dispute with the noisy neighbour? Want to ask your boss if you could leave early? Guess what, thats negotiation.

Or do you simply want to bring about a world-wide shift in thinking to save the human race from imminent self-destruction and make the planet, at last, a safe and happy place for everyone?

It is all about negotiation.

Who is the book for?

So, yes, this book is for people involved in negotiations in a professional context but it is for anyone involved in negotiations - and that means all of us .

Want your partner to take the rubbish out? Want to move house? Want a promotion? How about getting 20% off the price of those boots? Or dealing with the taxman over your arrears? Want a record deal for your first album? Or your tenth? This book will help.

The plain fact of the matter is that anything that involves other people will at some point involve negotiation.

I have taught Negotiation Skills for ten years now. I have taught hostage negotiators, Magic Circle law firms, investment banks and the purchasing departments for some of the largest manufacturing companies in the world. Countless people have already benefitted from the material in this book and my aim in making it more widely available is to help more people get better results in their negotiations of whatever kind.

I do not pretend it will turn you into a negotiator - you are one already. That is a bit like saying it will turn you into a human being.

But I do hope it will make you a better one. Negotiator, that is. And hopefully a better human being, too, because whether it is the big stuff or the little stuff, negotiation really is the stuff of life.

And the better you become at negotiation, the better you will become at your life.

About the book

The book is highly practical. It will de-mystify negotiation, give you a structure and a process to follow. In a clear, How to..., bullet-pointed format, you will learn everything you will need to get the best deal you can and close it in such a way you can sleep peacefully knowing it will be implemented fully as agreed.

You will learn how to deal with complex, dynamic, multi-party situations, how to deal with deadlock, how to defend yourself against strong-arm tactics, how to get your way when all the power is stacked against you.

It will give you techniques and tactics - right down to the level of If they say x , you say y . But it aims to go beyond that too. It will give you advanced techniques, beyond the normal negotiation literature. It draws upon the fields of psychology, of body language, of economics, of neuro-economics, of game theory, of systems theory, of decision theory. It uses cutting-edge research to really give you that advantage in the negotiation.

Enjoy the journey

And enjoy the journey. On the way, you are going to read about classic negotiations from business, politics and the world of international diplomacy.

And you will also come across evil dolphins, famous urinals, starving artists and anarchist rock bands, the discovery of Viagra, the negotiating tactics of Genghis Khan, the informational value of horse manure, sausage duels, how to set up your own cult and words of wisdom from Val Doonicans mum.

Sound good? Ready to rock and roll? Let us start by defining some terms.

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is negotiation?

Negotiation is not actually very important. Nor is the agreement that follows, nor the contract, nor the signatures. All quite unimportant.

So, then, why write a book on it?

To answer this, let us first define our terms: what exactly is negotiation? Now, there are probably as many definitions of the word as there are negotiators but a good working definition might read something like:

The process through which two or more parties come to an agreement on an action to be carried out

Uncontroversial. And yet it makes explicit a critical fact that is often overlooked: that a negotiation is part of a bigger process. In fact, it is the first stage of the bigger process which unfolds as:

1. Negotiate
2. Reach agreement
3. Implement action

and of these stages, the most important is the last one, by far .

The negotiation counts for nothing, indeed the signed contract counts for nothing, if what is eventually implemented in the real world does not suit you; that proud piece of paper merely a receipt for deceit.

This is really quite significant. When we think of negotiating, we tend to think of the haggle, the cut-and-thrust, the arm-wrestle. But all of that is only the means to the end, there simply to facilitate the action that is to be implemented. All of the great victories you achieve at the bargaining table, all of the fine words with signatures next to them, will mean nothing if events ultimately follow in a different manner to how you would like.

This small detail, hidden away within the folds of a definition, has immense ramifications for how you should negotiate and much of the rest of the book will follow from it.

Here, before we run too far ahead of ourselves, let us highlight just one consequence: that the negotiated solution must be win-win in nature.

This is true even for selfish reasons. Even if I am the most ungenerous person, thinking only of my own profit, I should target a mutually beneficial result because if the other party is not satisfied with the agreement, they will not implement it. Or they will sabotage it or undermine it or implement it to the letter but not in the spirit. Conversely, if it is to their advantage as well as mine, they will put all their full energies behind it in order to make it happen.

Put starkly like that, it is a no-brainer.

This is our starting point. And if you ever question Why win-win?, return to this page and re-read the definition.

What is mastery?

Negotiation is a skill and it is an art. That it is a skill means it can be deconstructed and learnt. And the way to learn a skill, a complex skill like negotiation, is to break it down into its sub-skills and then practise each of them.