***Negotiate to Win

Negotiating wisdom from Negotiate to Win, Trump University's new bootcamp course on negotiatingnnWhile you were growing up, you probably negotiated with your parents about your chores, your allowance and your curfew. If you were like me in school, you negotiated for homework extensions with your teachers. In your family today, you negotiate about vacations, budget and other issues. And I'd be willing to bet that that you negotiate pretty hard when you're buying a car or a house. You and I are already seasoned negotiators. In one way or another, we have been negotiating every day of our lives and we have gotten pretty good at it. Or so we believe. The problem is, the tactics that have worked so well for us in our personal negotiations can turn out to be disastrous in business. And few people realize that. Consider scenes like these:

• To get a car salesman to accept your offer, you stood up and headed for the exit door. It worked beautifully. But if you try the same tactic when you are buying a business, you will probably kill the deal. It is wiser to wait out the other side by keeping the conversation going, even when it seems to be headed nowhere.
• When you were selling your house, you sealed the deal by offering to pay for a new roof or a new furnace. But if you are selling a business, making concessions like those too early can undercut the value of what you have to sell. You are literally giving away your money. If you bite you lip and wait for the other side to offer the first bargaining chip, you will do better.

nBecoming a great negotiator means understanding your personal strengths and weaknesses as a negotiator. That is the reason we have a lot of self-analysis into our newest bootcamp course, Negotiate to Win. Yes, there is an experienced negotiator inside you. The question is, is he or she the right one for the negotiations you will enter into tomorrow or next week? Ultimately, your success depends on having a large repertoire of tactics you can call upon as the situation requires.n