The Art Of Negotiating With Herb Cohen

Herb Cohen is a negotiation expert, dubbed “The World’s Best Negotiator” by Playboy magazine on 1980.

According to Herb, everything is negotiable. Children are great negotiators because they have very little power. They understand the core principles of negotiation:
– Aim high: if you expect more, you get more.
– No is not a final statement, but an opening bargaining position: you say no when you are surprised and, later on, when you go from no to yes you appear like a reasonable person.
– They form coalitions with people that influence the decision makers (they go to the grand-parents)
– They persist, they are tenacious, they don’t give up.
The number 1 mistake people make: they fall in love with something, whereas Herb recommends to “fall in like”. This is the key to not pay retail for everything.
“Care, but not that much”. Be ready to walk away and things will come to you.
When you negotiate:
– First recognize that this is a game, the game of life, there are many things more important than this game
– Limit your authority: explain that you are not the final decision maker, there has to be somebody else to go back to
– Always start off in an amicable fashion with a low key pause of calculated incompetence. Let them figure out how brilliant you are, try to ask more questions than you give answers, smile and give reinforcement when they say something that brings you closer to your goal. When they say something you don’t like, don’t say anything.
– See this as a problem to be solved and recognize that most concessions occur in proximity to the deadline. If you didn’t meet the deadline and both parties think the deal is over: “Now that it’s over, what did I do wrong?” Then you do what they would have wanted and you can resurrect a deal. “Every breakdown is a potential break-through”. You can become a negotiator. Dum is better than smart, inarticulate is better than articulate. “I don’t know… I don’t understand… You’ve been around for so long, you see people like me come and go.” Have a soft style, be polite, listen. “How do we solve this in a way that is beneficial to both parties?” Negotiating is a process, nothing legal, no need for a lawyer.

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7E2XQoIjNkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jLkmG_-rQ