Usually, a successful business depends on knowing the basics of negotiation. Today, successful negotiation can help you achieve business success. Business and international trade are fundamentally based on negotiation. As part of a deal, you will negotiate every part, including sourcing your products from suppliers, dealing with wholesalers and retailers, and negotiating price and therefore your profit margin. Understanding negotiation styles is one of the keys to any business’s success, not just importing and exporting.
Effective negotiation
Although deals come in all shapes and sizes, they are only effective when both parties are satisfied, and value is created. You may think that in a negotiation where everything is in your best interest and the other side has little or no profit, the best negotiation is. Business does not always follow this logic because you will probably be on the side of someone who has no motivation and does not care about losing your business so that they will offer you terrible services. Perhaps they’re always finding ways to cut corners to save on their budget.
Negotiations work effectively when both sides gain and there’s a compromising style. Afterward, both sides are motivated and want to work together long-term, working toward conflict resolution and continually striving to improve service and relationships.
Personalities in negotiation
Deals are often negotiated based on personalities and collaborative styles, not just costs. Having something in common and good personalities can seal the deal and make you’re negotiating much more effective. Meeting with someone who has a relaxed and friendly manner, with whom you can have a tea and discuss business, is more pleasant.
When you’re dealing with someone you like, negotiating is much easier. Consider how much sense that makes for a moment. You won’t likely be interested in getting a deal done if you’re negotiating with someone who’s hard-headed, stubborn, or arrogant and wants only what they want.
It’s still business savvy, but you can see that they’ll be good to work with, understanding when things go wrong and someone who’s willing to work with you to find a solution. It is much more appealing to be around this type of person or relationship. Even though money is important, it isn’t always a priority.
Negotiation style
Different people have different communication styles. People have a wide range of experiences, skills, and tools that affect how they interact with others, both at home and at work. Having a relative understanding of the other party is crucial to a successful negotiation. Negotiation styles are also influenced by communication styles. There are five different negotiation styles based on communication: competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, and avoiding. We’ll examine each one separately.
Compete
Results-driven personalities are competitive. Their communication is focused and assertive, and they are often aggressive. Competitive negotiators tend to think strategically, which means that they have limited time for pleasantries. In competitive negotiation styles, I win, and you lose. A competitive negotiator uses hardball tactics to achieve their goals without considering the needs of the other party.
Hence, it is quite risky to enact competition-based negotiations. It can be costly and time-consuming, and it often results in a deadlock. Inexperienced negotiators often use this style, believing it to be the only viable approach or have had good results using it in the past. Therefore, in the face of these situations and people, always be careful not to lose and have the ability to negotiate successfully.
Collaborate
A collaborative negotiator is honest and understands the concerns and interests of the other party. To make sure both parties are satisfied, they like to find creative solutions. In contrast to a competitive negotiation style, a collaborative negotiation style seeks to achieve the “I win, you win” outcome. The win-win model is planned to meet the needs of all parties. An individual with a collaborative negotiation style is willing to invest time in finding innovative solutions and building business partnerships with other organizations.
Compromise
Compromise negotiators are involved with doing what is fair for both parties and finding a middle ground. To satisfy the other party, they would rather compromise on your own outcome. Compromise negotiation styles follow a “I win/lose some, you win/lose some” model, as opposed to collaborative negotiation styles. Compromise is the style of negotiation most people think of, but in reality, it is only bargaining. By compromising, both parties arrive at a solution that is approximately halfway between their opening positions. Although it may satisfy some of each party’s needs, it does not maximize the situation as collaboration can.
Accommodate
A good accommodating negotiator spends a lot of time building and maintaining relationships with the other party. They are very aware of emotions, relationships, and body language in negotiation situations. In this style, “I lose, and you win.” It is the opposite of competitive. The relationship is everything to accommodating negotiators, and the outcome is irrelevant to them. This may also increase the probability of receiving support and assistance from the other party, thus ensuring future agreement.
Avoid
Avoiding personalities hate negotiations! By staying behind the scenes of a negotiation, they may avoid situations that may cause conflict as they find them stressful and intimidating. Avoiding negotiation is based on a “I lose, you lose” model. Those who identify with the avoiding negotiation style dislike conflict and tend to speak vaguely about the issue at hand rather than actually discussing the issue. If the avoiding negotiator dislikes the outcome of an agreement and that agreement is reached, they may try to take revenge on the opposite party before the party even knows that they were unhappy with the agreement. Because avoiders dislike conflict and have difficulty communicating directly, they appear passive-aggressive. Interpersonal business relationships may suffer as a result.