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Wondering how to take a win-win approach to negotiation? You’ll find useful insights in this short video featuring ten quotes about negotiating from the win-win perspective. They neatly capture what win-win negotiation is all about, as well as giving you some clues about how to do it well. Once you’ve finished watching the video, take your learning to a deeper level by listening to my free podcast on handling objections during negotiations.

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Do you want to stop negative people stalling conversations during meetings? Are you sick of making proposals, only to have them dismissed by whiners? Are you fed up trying to close a sale, only to find objections are putting a barrier in the road to success? If these situations are frustrating you, you need to learn how to handle objections like a master negotiator.

In my course, Negotiation Skills for Women, we cover a range of techniques women can use to overcome objections in both formal and informal negotiation settings. Here’s a quick rundown on the advice I give to participants in these classes.

Ask exploratory questions

Highly skilled negotiators don’t stop when they hear objections. Instead, they adopt a mindset of exploration. They ask questions to uncover what’s going on for the person who has raised the issue. They do this because they know that handling an objection is always easier when you understand what’s prompting it. Useful questions to ask include “What makes you say that?” or “What are you concerned about here?” Get lots more tips on this in my free podcast, Handling Objections Without Sounding Pushy. Read more

Want to know how to handle objections when you’re negotiating at work? This video is a practical introduction to this sticky topic. Discover how to prevent objections bogging down your discussion. See how to dig beneath an objection to uncover your negotiation counterpart’s key needs and concerns and use discovery questions to move beyond impasse states.

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Your negotiation style influences your power stance and tactics during negotiation. For example, if you take a low-status power stance, your tactics are likely to promote others meeting their needs at your own expense. Or, if you take a stronger power stance, you may get others off side by using communication tactics which are perceived to be aggressive.

Effective negotiators are aware of the impact of negotiation style on their results. They are flexible in working across a range of styles, depending on their contexts. Knowing what your own baseline negotiation style is, can help you to develop this sort of flexibility. Read more

Power-up your negotiation skills with tips on how to feel confident when negotiating. Learn five strategies to heighten your influence during negotiations. Find out how to define your outcome before opening a negotiation. Build a back-up plan that will strengthen your position.

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Are you a nervous negotiator? If you’re a woman, it isn’t surprising if you are. Around 70% of women feel nervous preparing for negotiation scenarios. So what do the remaining 30% of women do differently to the rest of us?

The most important action they take is being well prepared. Here are the top five ways that you can be like excellent female negotiators and beat negotiation nerves through great preparation.

Build a strong back-up plan

The best way to nip negotiation nerves in the bud, is to know exactly what you’ll do if you’re not happy with where the discussion is going. This is why you need backup plan. Your backup plan is your plan for what you’ll do if you walk away without closing the deal. Read more

Do you want to feel confident and powerful when you negotiate? Learn how to build your negotiation know-how in this practical video by success coach Eleanor Shakiba. Hear how to strengthen your position by preparing a back-up plan before you negotiate. Learn how to set your ‘walk away point’ and use it to keep your negotiation on track. Build your negotiation skills by learning phrases to keep the concession exchange process on track.

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In the 20 years I’ve been teaching negotiation, I’ve noticed a key psychological distortion that holds women back from getting what they want during negotiations. It centres on the way that women interpret the term ‘win-win’.

At a theoretical level, this term is meant to imply a balanced relationship between negotiators. The idea is that each person gets their needs met during negotiation and therefore experiences a win. Although women understand this at a purely cognitive level, their behaviour often reveals a gap in meaning. Rather than expecting an equal balance of wins within the negotiation, many women operate in ways which allow more wins for their counterpart, than to themselves. Essentially, this means that women are confusing ‘win-win’ with ‘give-give’. This can be a problem, because it results in: Read more

You’ve heard of taking a win-win approach. But what is win-win negotiation, anyway? Find out in this quick introduction. Hear what win-win is, who can benefit from it and what steps you can take to use the win-win approach in real life. A great introduction for anyone who wants to become a successful negotiator.

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On a recent trip to Bali, I was fascinated by a scene in the Ubud markets. A 15-year-old girl was haggling over the price of three new t-shirts. Her mother was standing slightly back, whispering to a friend, “Look at her negotiate.” Mum’s words were spoken with pride and a tinge of awe.

This scene got me thinking about how few young Australian women are formally taught the art of negotiation. Because many of us missed out on vital lessons early in life, as adults and professionals we often negotiation with fear or anxiety. If you think your negotiation skills need an upgrade, you’re probably right. If I was coaching you, I would use three signs to tell me whether you need help. Read more