Enhancing Your Deal in Business Negotiations

Not all contracts are created equal.

Some maximize joint gain through creative trades, while others are barely satisfactory.

Strategic wariness causes many people to leave untapped value on the bargaining table. Of course, agreements based on incomplete and distorted information aren?t likely to be efficient.

Twenty years ago, as a remedy to this dilemma, Howard Raiffa, author of?The Art and Science of Negotiation: How to Resolve Conflicts and Get the Best Out of Bargaining?(Belknap Press, 1985), floated a novel idea: people should continue to negotiate after coming to agreement.

Specifically, Raiffa proposed that negotiators consider?postsettlement settlements?in which their current deal is simply the foundation for further value creation. A signed deal would become the bird in hand; negotiators would entertain revision if ? and only if ? it were to everyone?s advantage. With this assurance, people should be more open to revealing their priorities.

After agreeing on the purchase and sale of a home, for example, the parties might talk over the closing date.

If the buyer would like to move in soon (or the seller remain longer), a price adjustment coupled with a date change might leave everyone better off. Other post-deal topics for discussion might include seller financing, furnishings, and, in the case of a vacation property, maybe even some future share. Even if few of these options proved feasible, one or two might offer thousands of dollars of extra value to both sides.

Post-settlement settlements should work in any setting, yet they are rarely attempted. In hard-bargaining cases, it can be difficult to shift gears to a more collaborative approach; even people who have been cooperative throughout the process may simply run out of steam. But consider that it takes little effort to say, ?Great! We?ve got a deal that we both can live with.

But it might make sense to roll up our sleeves and see if we can do better.?

Discover step-by-step techniques for avoiding common business negotiation pitfalls when you download a FREE copy of our Business Negotiation Skills: 5 Common Business Negotiation Mistakes special report from Harvard Law School.

Source: http://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/business-negotiations/enhancing-your-deal-in-business-negotiations/

2012 groundhog day groundhog phil pee wee herman ketamine ground hogs day 2012 goundhog day punxsutawney