Jim Camp's top negotiating tips
 |  Camp: "All human beings understand respectful behavior, intelligent questions, and genuine interest" |
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American author and negotiating coach Jim Camp recommends that Americans who deal with overseas people who express an anti-U.S. feeling, should apply the following 10 rules to business deals.
1. You don't need foreign policies. Negotiate an outcome that is beneficial for your side, as will your respected opponent. Bring this to the table. Period.
2. Don't waste your time on cross-cultural training. All human beings understand respectful behavior, intelligent questions, and genuine interest. You already speak the same "language".
3. Don't react. The key to decision-based negotiating, as opposed to emotion-based negotiating, is emotional neutrality. If your opponent hates or mistrusts you from the start, let him.
4. Don't try to make your opponent like you. If you spend even one moment worrying about whether he or she likes you, approves of you, or wants to be friends, you are on your way to blowing the deal. Keep all emotions out of the room. This is business.
5. Don't offer a compromise at the start. Once you do this, you signal to your opponent that you're ready to give something up in order to get to an agreement. Trying to make both sides happy is an emotion-based decision-the basic flaw with win-win negotiating.
6. Don't think about closing the deal. Despite everything you learned in business school, hoping or planning for the outcome is a deal killer. Stay grounded in the present moment and what your opponent says and does next.
7. The greater his emotion, the greater your opportunity. If your opponent speaks through accusations or veiled insults, you are in a perfect position to demonstrate reason, calmness, and mastery of the issues. If you have a superiority complex, you become an ideal opponent. Let them feel in control; stay focused on your position and expertise.
8. Talk little; ask questions and listen. Pose interrogative-led questions (who, what, when, where, ! why, how) to get him to reveal hidden agendas and positions. Take notes; observe; keep your mouth shut.
9. Respect is always earned. In systematic decision-based negotiating, every decision is based on information disclosed right at the table. Once he sees that you are listening and asking insightful questions, he will regard you as an individual, not as an ugly American.
10. Stay focused on your mission and purpose. In every successful negotiation, set your M&P in your opponent's world, not in your own. Focus on how you can help him realize that offering XYZ to you will be beneficial to him.
