When you begin the actual dialogue, make sure that you know more about the subject matter than does the person with whom you’re negotiating. You aren’t arming yourself with this information so you can be a showoff or so you can put the other person down or to make the other person feel inferior. It’s to make you the authority figure in the room. Don’t rush it. Let all your preparation come out naturally and with as many specifics as possible. Think of your favorite teacher you had in school — the one with patience and the ability to explain ideas clearly. That’s how you want to deliver the information that you have stored up for this meeting.
Also, if you’re really knowledgeable and someone says something that you have never heard before (and you suspect is not true), it carries a lot more meaning when you say, “Hmm, I haven’t heard that before. Let me check into it.” If you, with all your knowledge, haven’t heard of something, maybe it isn’t true. You won’t have to say anything. Everyone will fill in the blanks for you.
All organizations, big or small, have information available to you whether it is via the Internet, in print, or through word-of-mouth. You impress the person on the other side of the table when you walk into a room with all the knowledge at your fingertips. Sometimes, I hear people say that they overprepared for a certain negotiation. That’s never true. The fact that you had information that didn’t come out of your mouth doesn’t mean that you overprepared. All that preparation made you confident. You were unafraid of any question. You had it all in your head, and it served a purpose, even if the purpose was never put into words in the actual negotiating session. The negotiator with the most information wins!
Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men is a film about playing detective and preparing for the ultimate negotiation — in this case a courtroom battle between a disgruntled lawyer played by Tom Cruise and an evil military commander, played by Jack Nicholson. Watch Cruise’s character and his team plan and strategize their courtroom argument. The preparation is intricate, the team knowing well that the defense will put up a tough fight. The story is based on fact, where a Marine at the Guantanamo Naval Air Station in Cuba dies after a hazing incident. Two Marines are charged with the death, but Cruise and his team suspect there is more to the story. They gather much information. The climactic trial is an engrossing battle of words, but with Cruise’s team well prepared with information about the commander’s notorious history, they win the case. Digging for information is hard work, but the payoff can be rewarding.
Also, if you’re really knowledgeable and someone says something that you have never heard before (and you suspect is not true), it carries a lot more meaning when you say, “Hmm, I haven’t heard that before. Let me check into it.” If you, with all your knowledge, haven’t heard of something, maybe it isn’t true. You won’t have to say anything. Everyone will fill in the blanks for you.
All organizations, big or small, have information available to you whether it is via the Internet, in print, or through word-of-mouth. You impress the person on the other side of the table when you walk into a room with all the knowledge at your fingertips. Sometimes, I hear people say that they overprepared for a certain negotiation. That’s never true. The fact that you had information that didn’t come out of your mouth doesn’t mean that you overprepared. All that preparation made you confident. You were unafraid of any question. You had it all in your head, and it served a purpose, even if the purpose was never put into words in the actual negotiating session. The negotiator with the most information wins!
Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men is a film about playing detective and preparing for the ultimate negotiation — in this case a courtroom battle between a disgruntled lawyer played by Tom Cruise and an evil military commander, played by Jack Nicholson. Watch Cruise’s character and his team plan and strategize their courtroom argument. The preparation is intricate, the team knowing well that the defense will put up a tough fight. The story is based on fact, where a Marine at the Guantanamo Naval Air Station in Cuba dies after a hazing incident. Two Marines are charged with the death, but Cruise and his team suspect there is more to the story. They gather much information. The climactic trial is an engrossing battle of words, but with Cruise’s team well prepared with information about the commander’s notorious history, they win the case. Digging for information is hard work, but the payoff can be rewarding.
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