You’re about to enter a high-stakes negotiation. How can you develop the confidence to get what you want?

When you know what you bring to the table as an individual and recognize your worth, you develop a stronger sense of self-confidence. You become aware of your unique abilities, qualities, and accomplishments, which boosts your self-esteem and empowers you when engaging in negotiations, facing personal or professional challenges, and pursuing your aspirations. Understanding yourself is a perpetual process that allows for continuous personal growth and self-improvement. As you learn more about yourself and identify your strengths, weaknesses, and areas of development, you can actively work on enhancing your skills, cultivating positive habits, and achieving your full potential.

Find out what is most important to the other party. Leverage in a way that gets them what they want so you can present a win-win option. Listening is key. Diplomacy is a must.

Preparation is indeed key for any negotiation, and even more critical for high-stakes negotiations. It's important to research/anticipate what's most important to each party and what is less important to see where concessions on both sides could be made to come to a mutually beneficial deal. It's also useful to see if there might be a possibility that my lowest acceptable target price may still be too high for the other party. If so, one may need to prepare also for 'higher-ground' negotiations which can be an alternative to making a bad compromise or walking away from a possible deal.

SIe sollten niemals in eine Verhandlung unvorbereitet gehen. Kennen Sie Ihre Ziele, kennen Sie Ihren Wert und kennen Sie Ihren Mehrwert. In Ihrer Vorbereitung sollten Sie sich mit dem Unternehmen, dem Produkt und den Marktgegebenenheiten vertraut machen. Wenn Sie ein faires Angebot unterbreitet haben, stehen Sie dazu, erkl?ren dieses und warten die Reaktionen ab.

Sie müssen bereits vor der Vertragsverhandlung sich darüber klar sein, was Ihre Ziele sind. Legen Sie einen Preis fest, welcher Ihr Minimum ist. Legen Sie dabei fest, welche Optionen Ihr Angebot beim MInimumpreis nicht enth?lt. Gehen Sie niemals unter Ihr festgesetztes Minimum! Seien Sie zu Kompromissen bereit, aber verkaufen Sie sich nicht unter Wert.

It's important to still aim for the best possible outcome and not immediately give into requested concessions from the other party, even if that hasn't reached yet our lowest acceptable level. As a buyer, 've often seen sales people to quickly go to their lowest acceptable level even when that was not necessary, actually. If they would have been tougher, I might have bought still at a somewhat higher level and still felt it would have been a good deal. That's why, as a sales manager, it's tricky to give sales people a lowest acceptable offer as they often default to that low level even when it's not necessary to do so.

It is true that if negotiation partners can build significant trust with each other, it's easier to work out a deal that is considered beneficial to both parties. Also, according to Cialdini's research, 'liking' is one of the 6 key elements for influencing. In our research, we found that trust is the combination of competence, rapport and care. Rapport is about how we connect with another person, but it doesn't guarantee trust, yet. Competence and care are other important factors and especially care seems to be difficult for most sales people. To truly care for a good outcome for the other party seems contradictory to taking care of yourself/your company. This is not a contradiction, it's a paradox, i.e. can be true at the same time.

Erstellen Sie vorab Berichte und Auswertungen und nehmen diese mit zur Vertragsverhandlung. Dies zeigt nicht nur, dass Sie sich vorher damit auseinandergesetzt haben, sondern zeigt auch von Wertsch?tzung Ihres Verhandlungspartners gegenüber und vor allem kommen Sie selbstbewusster rüber, da Sie bereits Auswertungen vorgenommen haben und sich mit den Zahlen und Fakten auskennen. Verwenden Sie die Zahlen nicht gegen Ihren Gegenüber, sondern seien Sie der empathische Verhandlungsführer, der einen Mehrwert bietet und dem eine Beziehungsebene wichtig ist.

Strategisch und selbstbewusst verhandeln, bedeutet das Sie genau wissen was Sie tun. Unterbreiten Sie ein faires Angebot und machen Ihrem Gegenüber klar, dass dieses Angebot eine WinWin Situation für beide darstellt. Zeigen Sie direkt was Sie k?nnen und worin Ihr Mehrwert liegt. Argumentieren Sie, warum es genau dieses Angebot sein soll und nicht ein anderes.

To get the best possible negotiation outcomes, we found it useful to prepare and use a negotiation meeting plan. It helps to clarify both positions and to ensure that all factors that need to be discussed are 'put on the table'. It also helps to avoid being 'drawn into' a disadvantageous deal or to be too emotionally triggered - a tactic employed by some negotiators.

Am Ende Ihrer Verhandlung sollten Sie sich untereinander Feedback zu Ihrer Verhandlung geben. So k?nnen Sie am besten daraus lernen. Sofern die Verhandlung erfolgreich war, st?rkt dies ohnehin Ihr Selbstbewusstsein. Wenn alle mit einem guten Gefühl gehen, hat jeder Seite alles richtig gemacht. War die Verhandlung nicht erfolgreich, geben Sie in der Feedbackrunde nicht zu viel preis, da dies auch an Mitbewerber weitergegeben werden k?nnte.

The most important feedback from any negotiation is the final result. It gives us a great sense how we did, where we met or even exceeded our expected outcomes as well as where we failed to do so. If you negotiate together with other people from your organization, a debrief of the negotiation is definitely an important step for continuous improvement.

Looking back at your wins and learning from past experiences can really boost your confidence for big discussions. It's all about believing you deserve to be in those important talks and knowing the value of what you're pushing for. This self-belief helps you handle the pressure and make strong cases for your points.

He who is willing to walk away will win any negotiation. If you want to win, you have to make sure that selection is solid, no matter what you are selling. Selling multiple things can create doubt unless each has been solidified as a great selection. Once that is established, Price can be established. I learned this from a good friend - David Martin: On scale of 1-10 where do you think we are on completion of this sale? No matter what the person says, say this: "What would it take to get you to 10 right now? I used that to get a large cap loan from a banker who was trying to delay the decision.