Negotiation Strategies
In order for business negotiations to be successful, you need to work out a strategy in advance: it will help you negotiate as you need, and not just "go with the flow." There are four negotiation strategies, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.
As a result of negotiations, you can win or lose. For your opponent, negotiations can also end with either a win or a loss. The negotiation strategies differ depending on the outcome of the negotiations for each of the two parties. Thus, there are four strategies of negotiations: "win-loss", "loss-win", "loss-loss", "win-win". Let's consider each of them a bit more in detail.
"Win is a loss"
A person who adheres to this negotiating strategy will strive to achieve your goals in any way, while he is not interested in the interests of anotherside. He regards the negotiating partner as an adversary, which must be defeated. This approach does not have to cooperate and compromise, because the task of the party that adheres to the "win-lose" negotiation strategy is to achieve advantages at the expense of the partner's interests in the negotiations.
If this strategy is used in the course of negotiations, there is usually no talk of any further cooperation. This rather tough strategy is usually used for short-term business relationships, when it is necessary to achieve its goal as quickly as possible, acting in a hurry, so to speak, and then say goodbye to the other side forever and never to cross again.
"Losing is a win"
This strategy is often called a "failure strategy", because the person who chose her is initially determined to make a concession and is ready to follow the course that his partner in the negotiations will outline. Often this strategy is not chosen consciously,but under the pressure of circumstances, when a tough opponent (often acting according to the "win-lose" strategy) presses and forces to yield. But there are cases when such a strategy is chosen consciously.
When is the choice of this strategy negotiated? Such a strategy can be useful in long-term business relations, when maintaining good relations is more important than the outcome of negotiations. A consciously made concession, the consequences of which are carefully calculated, can prove very useful in the future. This is the case when defeat in the battle leads to victory in the war.
"Losing is a loss"
The "lose-lose" strategy is not deliberately chosen: this situation develops when both opponents are set to win and only to win. In this case, negotiations turn intoa kind of competition in stubbornness and come to a dead end, because neither side wants to yield. This negotiation strategy is considered to be the most inefficient, because most often the parties simply disagree without reaching an agreement.
Perhaps, cases in which this strategy can be applied consciously with the benefit of at least one of the negotiators, no. Therefore, during negotiations it is very importantcontrol your emotions and, if necessary, curb your stubbornness: if you persist, you will at least lose time and spoil your nerves. It is better to abandon unpromising negotiations.
"Winning is a win"
The choice of this strategy of negotiations is most optimal in most cases. It helps lay the foundation for fruitful long-term cooperation, because participants of the negotiations perceive each other not as rivals, but as partners. In this case, each negotiator is ready to sacrifice something not too valuable for the sake of the partner, and the partner, in turn, also sacrifices something for his sake. This is a strategy of mutually beneficial compromises.
In this case, it is absolutely not meant that youyou have to surrender all your interests: you get what you want, otherwise the current situation can not be considered a winning one. Successful use of this negotiating strategy is possible only if Both negotiators are ready to make every effort to find a mutually beneficial solution.
Sometimes separate win strategywhen one of the partners is set to achievehis own winnings, while he does not care whether the partner wins or loses. But usually it quickly passes into the strategy of "win-lose" or "win-win"
As we have already said, the most successful is the "win-win" approach, and in most cases, participants tend to it. But the choice of a specific negotiating strategy depends on the circumstances, the main thing is not to come to the situation of "loss - loss".