If you are going to deliver your business plan presentation to potential investors, it is important for you to make preparation so that you will get your presentation runs well. Since you want to attract the investors, you need to make your presentation to be interesting. At this time, this article is going to give you some easy tips to prepare a business plan presentation.

Firstly, you need to analyze your audience. You have to know who are going to attend your presentation. Besides, you also need to find the background of each investor and try to determine the other types of businesses that they have invested in. You should get a sense of something that can impress them.

Secondly, you need to get organized. In order to make you easier in giving your presentation, it is suggested for you to write an outline of the key points that you want to hit upon. When arranging your material, you should make it in the same order with your business plan that is organized in. Then, you need to eliminate the gaps and the inconsistencies in your outline.

Thirdly, you need to prepare a script. You can write the main point of your speech on small card in a way to help you remember the material you are going to explain.

Fourthly, keeping your tone conversational is also important. Just give your audience a quick overview of the business and then you can go into the specifics of your business plan.

Fifthly, in order to support your presentation, it would be great if you are using visual aids during the presentation. For making effective presentation, you can prepare 10 to 15 slides, handouts, or overheads, to punctuate your remarks. If you want to deliver computerized presentation, you can use PowerPoint for making your presentation more attractive.

Lastly, you need to practice by reading your script out loud. If you want to evaluate your performance, you can give your presentation to a group of your friends and ask them to give a critique for your performance.

The boring, witless PowerPoint presentation is a stereotype for a reason: Anyone who has spent any time in the business world has encountered their share of them in the wild.

After sitting through a poorly presented hour with nothing to show for it but a stack of slides, it is probably easy to blame PowerPoint itself for your wasted time. At least that is what Prezi, a relatively new startup, might hope.

Prezi, which launched in Hungary in 2009 and now has offices in Budapest and San Francisco, offers web-based presentation software that differs from PowerPoint principally in the ability to zoom in and out freely, as well as allowing navigation through a parallax 3D space on the Z-axis. Sample presentations are available on Prezi’s website. Prezi has yet to catch on in a large way in the U.S., though it has recently gained substantial traction in Australia and New Zealand and reports about 40 million users worldwide.

Prezi is certainly slick. It was originally built using Adobe Flash, though it transitioned to JavaScript this year, and it offers the ability to play audio and YouTube videos from within a presentation. But it raises the fundamental question: How does the ability to zoom in and out fundamentally make you a better presenter? When is a picture just a picture, and when it is worth 1,000 words?

Much like a website – or a business, for that matter – a good presentation should be easily summarized. While animation can be eye-catching, it can easily become a distraction in which your content is lost amid zooms and rotations designed to impress rather than to educate.

Prezi presentations are stored in the cloud. For the business world, confidentiality and security are often vital. How comfortable will people be with storing their firm’s data with a third-party business? Of course, many businesses store some of their data in the cloud already on services such as Google Drive. But Google has built an established and mostly trustworthy name for itself. Prezi is still, essentially, a startup.

I am all for competition. If Prezi, or another company, creates software that truly delivers a superior product and an easier user experience to presenters, then PowerPoint will either have to catch up or become irrelevant. PowerPoint would have a long way to fall, given Microsoft’s clout and the omnipresence of its Office suite, but it is certainly not a flawless tool. Still, it is dangerous to fall into the trap of confusing changes to the medium with improvements to the message.

When computer spreadsheets first appeared and it became a simple matter to turn rows of data into a pie chart, pie charts were suddenly everywhere. Every report and meeting needed one or more. This was not always a bad thing. Then as now, some pie charts were really useful. Then again, some pie charts were, and are, really dumb.

Good communication, whether through a blog post, a presentation or a one-on-one conversation, is built on a few key traits. You must have a clear point to make; you must understand what your point is; and you must express that point in a simple, powerful and engaging way.

We are lucky today to have great presentation tools. But no matter how slick your graphics or intuitive your interface, true connection between a presenter and an audience comes from what the presenter has to say and how he or she says it. Offer your audience interesting, worthwhile material. The goal is to engage your viewers, listeners or readers, not to dazzle them. This will be as true 25 years from now as it is today, no matter what technology we might be using by then.

I want you to imagine that “The King” of Interviews…The King of News around the world, Mr. Larry King from CNN who knows and has interviewed U.S. Presidents, Oprah, the most famous people in the world and anyone and everyone who make the news, was going to sit down with you and ask you questions about MLM. What would you tell him? Could you imagine yourself doing it? Could you imagine the “top earner” in your company doing the interview? Or would that very thought make you cringe like watching a wildebeest walk into a lion’s den.

OK so let’s pretend you took it on (man you are brave!). What would you tell him if he asked you questions like this: “How is this different than a Pyramid Scheme?” What would be your answer? I sure hope it wouldn’t be one of those cheesy- “Well Corporate America is really a pyramid..blah….blah…blah…puke…” Or, “Oh yeah Larry and We are all going to go to jail…blah…blah…blah…” You have to do better than this. You can just imagine Larry King peering into your eyes saying…”Ok, MLM, What is it?” How would you explain it? Silence does not work my friends…no hesitating…GO. If you are struggling at all to muster an answer then you are not alone.

There is a person who went to bat for the industry and pulled this interview off…his name is Tim Sales. Tim Sales is quite frankly an MLM Legend who took on the responsibility of making MLM a professional business. Now you have a chance to go behind the scenes and use the same information Tim presented to Larry King and use it in your business so you can get the results that will expand your knowledge and get you more money coming in on a regular basis.

When it comes to content. You must know Your Industry. It is one of the keys and Tim Sales will make you a pro at this in his Professional Presenter. There is no other product like it.

To be a true Network Marketing Professional, you have to deliver real information in a non-hype factual and logical way.

Do you know how to do that? Well if you pay attention to the information in the Professional Presenter then you will.

You have to become a great presenter. Doesn’t mean you need to stand in front of 10,000 people live and present to them. But you will on the phone, a webinar, etc. The best people don’t become the President. The best PRESENTERS become the President. The best presenters will close the most deals as well.

I see a lot of the “Online MLM” folks are just skipping all of this because they believe that they are only talking to “entrepreneurs” or people who have been in MLM before so they are not getting these objections. OK here is your wake up call. If your whole downline is made up of people who jumped ship to your company…enjoy the ride for a while but just when you think things are going great, those people will jump from your company and your income will drop faster than throwing an anvil out 10 story building. You must find people who have NEVER been in MLM before. This is where you create loyalty. Loyalty because you made their life better and they stick with you and your company.

So how would you really learn to do a one on one presentation? When I say one on one presentation, I mean anytime you are talking to anybody could be a presentation. It could be over the phone, sitting at Starbucks face to face, in front of a large audience, a webcast, a live streaming video presentation, or even a video you record. You are always presenting.

Bottom line, you will learn something valuable by studying the Professional Presenter. For everyone it will be something different.

Wouldn’t you want to watch the biggest MLM Master swiftly and easily handle questions that are stopping your downline right now…Like:

What is it?
Is this one of those pyramids?
I am not a salesperson?
Can I do it?
I don’t have the time.

I want you to really think about this…just because people have objections does not make them a bad prospect. It makes them real. But if you just say that they are not serious if they have an objection like “I don’t have the time” then you are just using that as an excuse to why you will not get better and really master these objections. By the way, I am not talking about chasing your broke uncle into the business or calling someone 20 times and leaving 20 voicemails with no response. I am talking about you are there with a PRO from another industry. You either get them to understand or you get smoked. Period. I was not in MLM prior to joining and I stuck with the same company and am in the Million Dollar Club of the company. So you wouldn’t want me if I asked, “What is it?” Of course you would.

So if you are tired of getting smoked then get The Professional Presenter. It will change they way you talk to your prospects.

Professional Inviter comes with some very helpful tools:

1- Trifold Presentation Card
1- Building Your Own Business Brochure (Tim showed this to Larry King)
4- CDs – Content rich and THE way to talk to your prospects.
1- DVD. Featuring 2 Full One on One presentations plus 3 bonus one one one interviews. All the interviews are people I have mentored and worked with to build my business.

No matter who you are in MLM, you will benefit from this information…

Whether you’re up in front of a client, a networking group, or a conference audience, the success of your presentation depends on who you are as you present. It’s what’s in you that matters as much as what you do and say.

Your energy. Your enthusiasm. And I’m just going to come out and say it: your love.

I’ve upped my game in the past year when it comes to presentations. The outcomes have been striking. More visibility. More conversations with prospective customers. More word-of-mouth. More clients.

For this improvement, I have many presentation masters to thank, but two stand out: Nancy Duarte and Gail Larsen. Having these two as mentors through their books, videos, and coaching has made a huge difference.

So I want to share with you what I’ve learned that has made such a big difference in the responses I’ve been getting. They can do the same for you and your business!

1. Focus less on the head and more on the heart.

The heart rules. If you can touch people on an emotional level, you’ll be most of the way there. Those of us who’ve worked in a corporate setting in particular wrestle with this one. We’ve had it drummed in that it’s the information that matters most. I was a scientist, so I had a double dose of that medicine! Speak to the heart and you can’t go wrong.

2. Keep your visuals oh so simple.

I spent years as a consultant developing slides for my clients. One thing I always tried to teach them was the merit in keeping slide content as limited as possible. Those big tables with multiple rows and columns? Terrible for your audience! They’ll immediately tune out and you’ve lost momentum. You’ll have to work to regain their attention. It’s a lost opportunity!

Though I was always an advocate for simple slides, the benefits of what I used to do don’t compare to the audience response to the pared down approach I use now. Keep your slides limited to one image, or up to 5 words. That’s it. So so powerful. Your most important point will be made. You’ll make a much bigger impact.

3. Be aware you’re weaving a story.

People will always remember how you made them feel. When you tell a story, you bring them into an experience, one they will not readily forget. Whether the aim of your talk is to share data or a heartfelt experience, you’re weaving a story whether you realize it or not. The way our brains work, we fill in the gaps and apply our own knowledge and experiences.

When you realize how that works, it’s an opportunity for you to offer a different perspective, to expand their worlds a little bit (or a lot!). Share your own stories. They are a gift to others. Study movies for examples of stories. Listen to great speeches to learn their rhythms.

4. Cherish the vehicle for your presentation – you!

When you present, you have the opportunity to bring your whole being to it. Being attentive to that being will make you even more effective. Most people feel fear before they present. “Fear is excitement without the breath,” psychotherapist Fritz Perls reminded us. So remember to breathe.

Care for your precious, worthy self before a talk. Rest. Plan ahead so you arrive with a cushion of time rather than being rushed and stressed.

Decide how you want to show up in your presentation. Who do you want to be? Prepare your energy by meditating, affirmations, or a practice that resonates with you. I have a pre-presentation process that I do each time so that I’m present and at my best. You can create one too: include words, visualizations, and movement that prepare you.

5. Make your goal not information, but transformation.

Speaking to an audience, regardless of its size, is an opportunity for you to facilitate their transformation. Whether it’s a product or an idea that is the apparent subject of your presentation, you can bring the subject into a larger context, for yourself and your audience. What role can you play in raising people’s awareness? In shifting their view to healing and growing? You don’t need to change the whole world. Just change your own world for the better. Stay passionate about what calls you.

Your presentations, whether to one person or a whole crowd, can materially affect your business. The more memorable you are, the better the outcome. You can have more income and more impact as you develop your effectiveness as a presenter.

At its most basic level, a business presentation is a platform for communicating information and ideas. However, it is really much more than that. While some presentations are just a means to keep people informed, there is usually an element of persuasion involved. Even an informational presentation is not totally free of bias; the presenter always slants it his or her way. Sometimes the presenter is not even aware of this.

A presentation is a persuasion vehicle

Most business presentations are not intended to be strictly neutral transmissions of information. You want to sell your product, service, or solution to your prospective client. You want to win support for your idea. You want to gain buy-in for your recommendation. You want to persuade your audience.

Do your presentations have lots of slides with bullet points, data, and logical arguments? Such information is appropriate in handouts or other support materials. A presentation based solely on these elements is doomed to fail.

Do you try to tell your audience everything you know? Or do you think about what you want them to do and create a presentation with that strategy in mind? An effective business presentation is designed to persuade. It appeals to emotions as well as reason. It uses stories and not just charts and graphs.

A presentation is a picture of you and your organization

You may give presentations to audiences you do not know well, such as prospective clients or members of the public. They may not know much about you or your organization. But they will form an impression of you quickly. And they will use their impression of you to form an impression of the organization you represent.

You may be inexperienced, but you may express yourself with confidence and an air of expertise. Your company may be small, but a strong presentation may convey the perception that it punches above its weight.

Think about how you want your audience to perceive you. Use your presentation as an opportunity to showcase yourself at your best.

A presentation is a powerful, interactive communication medium

A presentation is a two-way exchange of information, not a one-way data dump. Even if there are no questions or comments from the audience, you can gauge their reactions from their facial expression and body language.

A written communication such as a memo or report has certain advantages over a live conversation. You can prepare in advance. You can check your facts, edit, and polish your style. You can take the time to make it nearly perfect.

However, a written communication has two serious drawbacks. First, you cannot tell when (or if) the recipient has read it. And second, you may never know what they really think about your message.

A phone call or a face-to-face conversation has advantages over a written communication. You can get immediate feedback from your listener’s tone of voice or facial expression. You can question one another. You know that your message has been received, and you may have some idea of whether it was accepted.

The problem with an oral communication is you may not be well prepared. Questions arise, there may be interruptions, and the conversation veers off course. You give up some control to other people and your surroundings.

A presentation combines the best of both worlds. You can prepare and polish your presentation, just like you can prepare a strong written document. You also get the benefit of instant feedback present in a face-to-face communication. If your audience looks like they are confused, you can clarify your meaning. If they look like they not buying your message, you can try another approach. Unlike a written communication, you can adapt on the fly.

A presentation is your chance to shine

Finally, a presentation is your golden opportunity to impress your boss and colleagues. People are watching you, and they will judge whether you have what it takes to get ahead in the organization. Do you communicate effectively and confidently? Have you mastered your material? Can you handle questions and think on your feet? Are you persuasive? Do you have the right stuff?

A business presentation is more than just a platform to convey information. It is more than a vehicle to persuade. It is your chance to shine!

Lots of negative emotions can drum up when you are hounded by collections calls. You may feel helpless in a never-ending cycle of debt. You may feel embarrassed because you feel like you should have made better choices. You may even feel like your image is being destroyed by the way collectors talk to you.  You can lose sleep, experience mood swings, changes in appetite, headaches, and more.  You may feel trapped in your financial situation and being reminded about it every five minutes by constant collections calls sure doesn’t help.  So you cut your ringer off and you don’t answer the phone.  But here’s the thing.  Just because you do not answer your phone does not mean bill collectors will stop trying to contact you.   It may be time to call a professional debt negotiator to get these people off your back, so you can get back on track.

If your accounts have gone into collections, making the minimum payment will not get you ahead. Most of your payment will go toward interest, and you will not be doing much to knock down your overall balance. You could be making minimum payments for 5 to 10 years before you even begin to make payments on your original loan or credit amount.  At that rate, you could be in debt for decades.  You are not alone.  Millions and millions of people are in extreme debt.  And guess what?  Lenders, creditors, and collectors are all suffering because of it.  There are so many people that are not paying their bills that creditors are willing to negotiate a settlement that can help you both. 

Debt negotiation is a process where you reach a deal with your creditors for a reduced payback. Once they settle on an amount, you agree to make monthly payments on the settlement.  When you have made your final payment, your account will be considered settled-in-full and paid off.  You will not owe the rest of the balance.  Many collection agencies are accepting as little as 40% of your outstanding balance as paid-in-full. 

For example, say you have outstanding credit card debt of $5000 with a $350 minimum monthly payment.  You could have that $5000 balance negotiated down to $2000, and agree to pay it off within 24 months.  Instead having to pay a $350 monthly payment on your $5000 credit card balance, you agree to pay $83 per month for the next 24 months on your $2000 negotiated settlement. At the end of 24 months, your credit report will reflect that you have paid this debt.

You do not need a professional to begin discussions with your creditors, but the advantage to using one is that they have experience with situations like yours.  They fight your creditors for you.  They are your hired representation, handling the negotiation process and blocking the collections calls.  Since they work directly with your creditors on your behalf, they eliminate the need for your creditors to call you.  (If by chance your creditors do continue to call you, you should write them a letter stating that you have hired a professional debt negotiator and all phone calls should be directed to them.  Include the name, telephone number, and address of your professional debt negotiator. You should also state that you do not wish to be contacted by phone and that they can only attempt to contact you by mail.  Sign and date this letter and send it to them by certified mail.  When the collection company acknowledges that they have received your letter, any future contact by phone is a violation of the law.  They will stop calling you because they do not want to be sued.)  When the phone calls stop and you are in control, you can live a much more peaceful existence. 

If you are in need of debt counseling, the help of a professional can really make you feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.  Some debt negotiators even roll their fee into your monthly settlement payment, eliminating the need for you to pay them anything up front.  In order to feel better, it may be time to call on a professional debt negotiator.  We all need someone in our corner sometimes.

© 2008

In healthy relationships, partners are able to talk through disagreements and find solutions that feel good to each of them. But occasionally an issue arises that is difficult to resolve. In this case, effective negotiation skills are essential if you and your partner want to make solid decisions that you both feel good about. Strong negotiation skills will help you navigate through conflict and strengthen your relationship.

Negotiation is not the act of making another person wrong; it is an exploration of each partner’s position with the ideal goal being to find a mutually acceptable solution. The benefit of negotiation is that it will give both of you as much of what you want as possible, while creating a structure in which you can find solutions and learn about how to compromise and communicate effectively.

Many people avoid conflict because they lack negotiation skills. This kind of avoidance will only lead to resentment, which will ultimately lead to more distance in your relationship. Healthy relationships exist when two people know how to resolve their differences in a mutually satisfying manner; negotiation is the healthy way to create this kind of resolution.

How to Negotiate With Your Partner

Establish ground rules for the negotiation. For example:

• No yelling
• No blaming
• No name-calling

Describe the disagreement. What is the issue to be resolved?

• Take turns expressing both your concerns and desires about the disagreement.
• Ask questions of each other to gain more clarity of your partner’s feelings and point of view.
• Brainstorm solutions:
• One partner proposes a solution and explains why it works for them.
• The other partner responds and explains why this works for them or not.
• If it doesn’t work, explain why and suggest another solution.
• Work on finding ways to make it easier for your partner to say “yes”.
• Repeat this process until an agreement is reached.
• Determine milestones and decide who will do what and when it will be done.
• Decide how long you will try this solution to see if it is working for the two of you.
• Set a time to come together and evaluate the plan. If it didn’t work out as well as you both had hoped, each of you should suggest a way that you would like to see things done differently and repeat the above process.
• It is important to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect solution. Trial and error is part of the process. A solution is agreed to, put into place and tested so that each partner has the opportunity to see how it feels. Setting a time to come back together to evaluate the way each person feels about the solution is important to maintain the feelings of trust that good negotiation creates. In fact, this is exactly how trust is built.

Learning effective negotiation skills requires practice and patience. The payoff however, is a loving relationship where you and your partner will feel honored and listened to. By learning how to successfully negotiate with one another, the intimacy and trust in your relationship will improve. You and your partner will truly be a team that can face all of the challenges that come your way.

Why Big Thinkers Often Lose at The Negotiation Table

Or

Everything I Needed to Know About Negotiations, My Five Year Old Taught Me

I was so appalled at the title of my first read on how to negotiate: Winning Through Intimidation, by Robert J. Winger, that I nearly tossed the book from my library.

I’m glad I didn’t.

As with so many book titles, this one betrayed its content, this title conjuring images of the big bully brow beating his adversary into submission in his zero sum game of winning at any cost.

Actually, it was quite the contrary.

Here’s a pretty good assessment of the book by a reader at Amazon.com:

“Imagine my surprise to find that “Winning Through Intimidation” (which is a misnomer, “Winning Through Not Letting Yourself GET Intimidated” is a more appropriate, if less colorful, title) is filled with great fundamental, common sense advice for anyone in the field of sales. It is obvious that Ringer has spent a great deal of time in the trenches – he accurately points out many common mistakes made by salespeople (spending WAY too much time on a particular account because it makes you feel busy, as opposed to because the account will realistically ever actually buy anything, not realizing the importance of having all agreements with clients in writing and keeping a paper trail of your communications, believing that your client is ever going to have YOUR best interest at heart, thinking that “closing the deal” is the end-all-be-all goal of sales, when actually *getting paid* is far more important).”

Over the next 30 years, I listened to tapes, attended seminars, read books and even interviewed some of the great negotiators like Jim Camp.

Just Google Jim and you’ll see what I’m referring to when I say “great negotiators”.

What do “great negotiators have in common? They know what the other side wants and try like hell to get it for them… without sacrificing their own needs and goals.

This is why some big thinkers often lose at the negotiation table. They are thinking of what they want and need. They’re usually determined, focused and calculating, but it’s all about them.

I’ve been involved with hundreds of negotiations.

The negotiations I “won” were hardly a battle. They were more like a formality.
The ones I lost, every single one of them, can be attributed to a number of factors, but the consistent pattern in all my losers were all because I spent too much time and energy on my needs and not the needs of my “partner”: the guy sitting across from me.

Let’s look at an example. Big thinkers can see the big picture.

Putting the pieces together, a daunting task for almost any task oriented professional, is easy for the big thinker.

Connect A to B, B to C, C to D and so on until the picture outline is clear. Fill in the different areas with colored pencils and, viola’, you’re in business.

So why do so many big thinkers lose at the negotiation table?

They forget that the other party has his dots to connect as well. And his color scheme doesn’t match the big thinker’s at all.

This fact is simply illustrated by my daughter’s constant and always successful negotiations with her dad.
Here’s how the negotiation might look about me taking her and the family to the beach on day dad is just too busy:

“Daddy, can we go to the beach today?”
“Don’t think so, honey. Daddy is very busy.”

“Are you working on something special?”
“Yes, honey; daddy is hoping to get an account with an important physician’s office.”
“What will happen if you get the account?”
“Not only will I have a chance at getting other physicians to use my services, but we’ll have the money to take you and the family to the beach more often.”
“That will be great Daddy. I hope you get the account.”
“Thanks sweetheart.”
“If you finish your work early, MAYBE we can go to the beach?”
“Absolutely honey. Let me see what I can do.”

My daughter unknowingly filled out the big picture not just for her but for me too. We both wanted the same thing: she wanted to go to the beach and I wanted to spend time with my family.

Once she led me through the maze of importance and priority, she quickly had me on her side, motivated to do not just an effective job, but an efficient job, so we could spend some time together.

She genuinely cared for my work, even if that concern originated in selfish motives.

She was single minded. Let’s all go the beach.

She approached commitment slowly (MAYBE).

Usually to their own negotiating demise, big thinkers know what they want and want an answer NOW.

This is an enormous mistake. There are times when answers come NOW but in most cases, one party or the other has different pressures that require attention before a decision can be made.

Sometimes we have to go slow to go fast.

For you big thinkers out there who want to get to yes, remember to keep the other party’s goals in mind, their pressures and needs, before you address your own.

Don’t get distracted. One thing at a time.

Approach commitment slowly.

If you keep these basic negotiation principles in mind, it’s a day at the beach.

The employee or job seeker about to negotiate his salary will want to be well prepared and have the knowledge to avoid the many pitfalls on the road to a successful salary negotiation. The Internet appears to be a valuable source of information to fulfill these aims. However, when going on “the Net”, most people choose a route that leads to certain failure instead of success.

Type “negotiate salary” into Google and what appears in the top “organic” results are links to job searching websites and other websites and blogs providing information for job seekers. There are loads of information on salary negotiations.
 
All these Internet sources of information on this subject have some things in common. The information is always brief, giving an appearance of a salary negotiation being a quite simple thing. The information always lacks systematization, making it hard to get an overview. There is never any explanation as to why some negotiation techniques work while others don’t, meaning that the job seeker or employee can never make an unbiased judgment as to whether a certain salary negotiation tip is good or not.
 
Using this information is a quite safe route to failure when negotiating the salary. The main reason for this is that this information gives the employee or job seeker a feeling of satisfaction or of being well prepared. Given that the information is always incomplete and unstructured, this results in the salary negotiator entering the negotiation under false assumptions, making him an easy target for the employer.
 
It is not a coincidence that most information on the Net on how to negotiate a salary leads the employee or job seeker to failure. The poor quality of the information is a result of the simple but hidden fact that the websites providing the information are on the employers’ payrolls.
 
The customers of the job searching sites are the employers and not the employees. It is the employers that pay their bills. And since the employers have no interest in the employees becoming really good at negotiating their salaries, the job searching sites have no such interest either.
 
The salary negotiation information is published on their websites to attract Internet traffic, i.e. people looking for jobs that can be passed on to the employers. The information is not published to make master negotiators of the website visitors.
 
The sum of it all is that the job searching sites and employers get what they want, while the employees and job seekers only find information that they don’t even know was not published to benefit them (but the job searching sites) and that will make them fail when negotiating their salaries. Therefore, making the wrong choices on the Internet is a safe route to failure when negotiating the salary.

Most successful negotiators recognise that the way people involved in negotiations behave does not always reflect their true feelings or intentions. We are going to look at negotiating tactics that may be used by you or on you. Whether or not you choose to use these tactics, it is vital to understand:

o Tactics work

o They can be being used on you, and can be used by you

o Once they are recognised as tactics, their effects are reduced, or eliminated

You may feel that there is no need in your particular case to negotiate or resort to tactics. in negotiation. This is a matter of personal choice.

In general, tactics are used to gain a short-term advantage during the negotiation and are designed to lower your expectations of reaching a successful conclusion.

There are many tactics available to negotiators. Here are some you may recognise.

Pre-Conditioning:

This can begin before you even get together, or start your negotiations with the other party. Let us take a sales example:

You telephone for the appointment and the other side says, aggressively:

“Don’t bother coming if you are going to tell me about price increases. You’ll be wasting your time and I will be forced to speak to your competitors”.

When you do arrive you are kept waiting in reception for half an hour, without being told why. As you walk through the door into the other person’s office they indicate for you to sit down, but they don’t look up. Instead, they sit leafing through your competitor’s brochure, in silence, ignoring your efforts to make conversation.

You are given an uncomfortable low chair to sit in that happens to be directly in line with the sun shining into the office. At this stage, how confident do you feel?

The Monkey On The Back:

Some negotiators have the irritating habit of handing their problems to you so that they become your problems. This is the “monkey on their back” that they want you to carry around for them.

A classic example is the person who says, “I have only got £10,000 in my budget”.

This is often used tactically to force a price reduction. Here is what you can do.

When one side says “I have only £10,000 in budget”, look concerned and say something like:

“That is a problem. As you are no doubt aware, the cost of our systems can be anything up to £20,000 and I really want to help you choose the best system that meets your needs. Does that mean that if one of our systems has everything you are looking for, but costs £20,000, you would rather I didn’t show it to you?”

The “monkey” has been returned and they have to make a choice. If the objection is genuine and the budget figure is correct, you must try to look for an alternative that meets your needs as well as theirs.

If they genuinely can only spend £10,000 that is not a tactic but the truth. In dealing with tactics the first decision you must make is whether it is a tactic or a genuine situation. If it is genuine, you have a problem to solve, rather than a tactic to overcome.

The Use Of Higher Authority:

This can be a most effective way to reduce pressure in the negotiation by introducing an unseen third party and can also be effective in bringing the negotiation to a close.

“I need to have this agreed by my Board of Directors.” “If they agree to the terms we have discussed, do we have a deal?”

However, be careful to use this device sparingly so that the other side does not begin to feel you have no decision making authority yourself.

One way of countering this tactic is to say before the bargaining begins: “If this proposal meets your needs, is there any reason you would not give me your decision today?”

If the other side still wishes to resort to higher authority, appeal to their ego by saying: “Of course, they will go along with your recommendations, won’t they? Will you be recommending this proposal?”

Nibbling:

Negotiations can be a tiring process. As the point draws near when an agreement is likely, both sides exhibit a psychological need to reach agreement and get on with something else.

You are very vulnerable as the other side reaches for their pen to sign the order form or contract, to concede items that don’t significantly affect the final outcome. “Oh, by the way, this does include free delivery, doesn’t it?” or “Oh, by the way, the price of the car does include a full tank of petrol?”

Nibbles work best when they are small and asked for at the right psychological moment. Like peanuts, eat enough of them and they get fattening.

Good negotiators will often keep back certain items on their want list until the very last minute when the other party is vulnerable. Watch out for this.

The Good Guy And The Bad Guy:

You may have come across this tactic before or else seen it used in films or on television. This is a tactic designed to soften you up in the negotiation.

For example, you are negotiating the renewal of your service contract with the Buying Director and his Finance Director. You present your proposal and the Buying Director suddenly gets angry and walks out in disgust muttering to himself about how unfair you have been and how the relationship is well and truly over.

You pick up your briefcase and are being shown the door when the Finance Director smiles at you sympathetically and says:

“I’m terribly sorry about that. He is under a lot of pressure. I would like to help you renew your contract, but he really will not consider the price you have suggested. Why don’t I go and talk to him for you and see if we can agree a compromise? What is the bottom line on the contract? If you give me your very best price, I will see what I can do”.

The best way of dealing with this tactic is to recognise the game that is being played and assess exactly what the quality of the relationship is. You may be able to say something like:

“Come off it, you are using good guy, bad guy. You are a superb negotiator, but let’s sit down and discuss the proposal realistically”.

If you don’t have this kind of relationship, stand firm and insist on dealing with the bad guy, or else bluff yourself and give a figure that is within your acceptable range of alternatives.

One way of combining good guy, bad guy. with higher authority is by saying things like:

“Well, I’d love to do a deal with you on that basis, but my manager refuses to let me agree terms of this nature without referring back and he refuses to talk to salespeople. Give me your best price and I will see what I can do”

Body Language:

It is important in negotiation to react verbally and visually when offers are made. You may have seen the more theatrical negotiators hang their heads in despair or accuse you of being unfair and souring a perfectly good relationship when you present your proposal. Human nature is such that we can believe and accept these outbursts against us and our negotiating position becomes weaker as a result.

Ensure the next time you are in a negotiation that you react to the other party’s offer. If you show no reaction, they may be tempted to ask for more and more and you will lose the initiative in the negotiation. Also, it is almost certain that their opening offer is higher than the figure for which they are prepared to settle, so it is important that you clearly signal your unwillingness to accept the opening position.

If you reach the point below which you will not go, it is important that you show this with your body language. News readers, when they have finished reading the news, have a habit of picking up their script and tidying up their papers. This tells the world that they have finished their task and are preparing to leave.

Similarly, when you make your final offer, it can be very powerful to collect your papers together and indicate with your body that it really is your final offer. Put your pen away, sit back in your chair and remain silent. Look concerned and keep quiet.

If your voice says final offer but your body is saying let’s keep talking, the other party will disregard what you say and keep negotiating.

The Use Of Silence:

During the negotiation, you may make a proposal and find the other party remains silent. This can be very difficult to handle and often signals disapproval to the inexperienced negotiator. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so silence induces the need in people to talk.

If you have a proposal to make, make it and ask the other side how he or she feels about it. Having asked the question, sit back and wait for the answer. Whatever you do; don’t change your offer as this could seriously weaken your position.

The Vice:

A common technique used by negotiators when presented with a proposal is to say:

“You’ll have to do better than that.”

The most powerful way of dealing with this is to ask them to be more specific. Whatever you do, don’t weaken your negotiating position in response to the vice by giving anything away, too easily. This will only encourage repeat behaviour.

The Power Of Legitimacy:

People believe what they see in writing. We all assume that if a thing is printed or written down, it is non-negotiable. This is what can make price lists so powerful. If you have to present a customer with a price increase or you wish to encourage an early order to beat a price increase, show something in writing such as an office memo from your boss announcing the increase. This will have a far greater impact than just saying your prices are about to go up.

When presented with a price tag in a shop, ask to speak to the manager and make him an offer. You could be surprised at the results.

And Finally -The Low Key Approach:

Don’t appear too enthusiastic during negotiations. Over-enthusiasm can encourage skilled negotiators to review their strategy and demand more.

If you are in a negotiation and the other side is not responding to your proposal, recognise this could be a tactic and avoid giving concessions just to cheer them up. Salespeople like to be liked and will often give money away in a negotiation, if the other side appears unhappy.

For example, if you are buying a car avoid saying to the seller things like:

“This is exactly what I’m looking for. I really like the alloy wheels”.

Develop a low-key approach. Say things like:

“Well, it may not be exactly what I’m looking for but I might be interested if the price is right”.

Copyright © 2008 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved