Negotiating is something we do every day, with everyone, for everything. We started negotiating as babies when we cried to get what we wanted and gradually built up our negotiation tactics to negotiate dinner locations, job offers, problems with partners, and basically anything that life throws at us.
Knowing how to negotiate successfully for whatever you want, not just your target salary, is a critical skill to develop.
During my MBA Program, around 90% of the students chose to take the Negotiation and Conflict Management class. It was one of the most popular courses, with the classroom always full and students constantly discussing what they learned and how applicable everything was to their daily lives.
Hence, given the popularity of the class, I expected to learn a lot, and the class exceeded my expectations. However, I didn’t learn as much from taking the class as a student as I learned from being the Teacher’s Assistant the following semester. Part of my responsibilities as TA was grading students’ papers who had to negotiate with each other. Getting to see two faces of the same coin allowed me to scrutinize in detail how differently two people perceive the same situation, analyze the big role of information asymmetry and how it all wraps up to conduct a successful negotiation.
The following are four (4) key takeaways that will help you get what you want during a negotiation (or at least come close to it):
1. Small talk plays a big role
If you are negotiating with someone for the first time, talk to them about other things first. Ask them questions. You’d actually be amazed at how willingly people share information, and if they don’t answer or avoid the question, that is still an answer.
Start talking about the weather and move slowly into asking personal questions such as how long that person has been working with the company, how often they engage in similar negotiations, etc. That is, try to work your way around to questions that help you better understand the person you are negotiating with. Remember that negotiations are done between people, not between companies, so understanding the person you are talking to will help you get what you want.
2. The uttermost importance of the anchor
One of the first things you learn in negotiation class is the crucial role that “anchoring” plays. The anchor point is essentially the first number that is thrown into a conversation. After that number is out there, the follow up conversation will be in a range close to that number. Let’s say you ask for a 100k salary, a counter offer of 70k would not be acceptable since it is way below the anchor point you have set.
Hence, make sure to set the anchor and set it right. However, there is a risk to this if you are unfamiliar with the trends, averages, and previous history. So, you also need a strong set of information that will help you defend your anchor point since you will probably face resistance from the other side.
3. Set your range beforehand
You need to be clear what your range is and have it set before the negotiation gets started. Here, you need to clearly set your Target Point = the point that you want to get and your Resistance Point = the lowest point that you are willing to accept.
If you do your research well, and your target point is in line with the market, then make sure to set the anchor a little above your target. This way you allow yourself a negotiation buffer in case the other party is unwilling to immediately accept your anchor (which will happen in majority of the cases).
4. Body language speaks louder than words (48% more to be exact)
We have all heard that body language is important. The interesting thing is that spoken words actually have less impact. In his book Silent Messages, Prof. Albert Mehrabian of UCLU concluded that human communication consists 55% of body language, 38% of voice tone and only 7% of actual spoken words. Hence, be aware of what you are saying during the negotiation, not just with your mouth but more so with your body and your tone of voice.
More importantly, know how to read the other party outside their spoken words. This will give you a huge advantage. For example, if the person is constantly avoiding eye contact, it could mean that they are withholding an important piece of information. This extra information is only available in face-to-face negotiation, so preferably always choose to conduct the negotiation in person unless your body language is easy to read.
Tringa Krasniqi holds an MBA degree from The George Washington University. She is the founder and consultant at Ivy Journey, an educational consulting firm for gaining admission to universities and winning scholarships.
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