I’ve seen intelligent folks negotiated out of a great bargain, denied of a critical bank loan, flunk at an IPO road show and even kicked out of their houses by their spouses.
Just for one reason.
They simply can’t meet halfway. The negotiation starts with both parties neither yielding nor accomodating. Each one is simply preoccuppied with getting the most out of the negotiation encounter.
Poor negotiation skills lead to misunderstanding, then suspicion, then ultimately withdrawal. It’s the fastest way to lose not just your shirt - but your associates and friends.
I’ve discovered three top negotiation skills that can make your next negotiation encounter a more satisfying one.
1. Never open with your position. Ask the other side, “So what would your offer be?” This way you keep your needs private and could bargain up or down based on what your negotiation sparring partners disclose.
2. Always come to the table with a focused outcome. If you know exactly what you want, you’ll know how to drive the negotiation within those parameters. Unfortunately, many folks come to the table not even having an inkling as to what they desire. So they get frustrated each time an off-the-hat suggestion gets rebuffed.
3. Learn to elicit critieria and to match that criteria. In NLP, if you can find the other side’s heirarchy of values by asking “What’s important to you about xxx”” at least thrice, you can find the underlying reasons for their proposals. Discover this, then you can easily and naturally tailor fit your suggestions to what they truly want.
Superb negotiation skills are built on this foundation. Develop them and you’ll happily discover more fulfilling outcomes.
More of Joseph Plazo's killer articles: Art of Unstoppable
Persuasion, Sneaky
Negotiation Techniques, and finding
Jobs in the PhilippinesArticle Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joey_Plazo
After operating Broadgate for what has almost been a year, I have faced many different challenges yet encountered many new opportunities. Reflecting over the past year, I see that Broadgate is not the company that I orginally envisioned or planned. In fact though, it is much better.
Orginally, the plan was to serve smaller start-up businesses with revenues and assets well below a million dollars. However, smaller deals were harder to source and the market competition for them was much more than my company was ready to handle. Instead, I took a counter-intuitive approach and went after larger companies in the middle-market sector. With this approach, we have actually had more success because the revenue upside from these larger clients is much greater.
Right now, our goals are to continue to build our marketing reach within the middle-market sector. We target companies in oil & gas, manufacturing, technology, and finance. These 4 niches have presented the most opportunities for us.
Though various reasons are attributed for starting a business the main reason without any doubt is to make money. People who start a business know very well that they can never become rich by working for someone else all life long.
To start a business and run it successfully, a range of essential entrepreneurial skills are necessary.If success is what you are after, then it stands to reason that you possess most of the essential skills or acquire them before you commence your business especially if you want to run the business yourself.
The other alternative will be to take in a partner or employee who possesses a particular skill or the skills that you are deficient in.
What then are the essential entrepreneurial skills the business entrepreneur should possess?
1. Planning Skill.
Proper planning is the fundamental first step you should undertake when you consider starting a new business. Feasibility of the business, marketing of the product, local competition and funding are some of the essential aspects that should be studied carefully. Good planning should be able to forecast and foresee the changing market conditions and adopt suitable strategies to counter or take advantage of them. They should also explore possibilities of adding new products or services to keep up with the changing circumstances and beat the competition.
2.Techinical or Knowledge Skill:
If you are turning out a product, you should possess the necessary skills to produce that product. Experience gained in working in similar work places or a professional qualification will stand you in good stead. Of course for certain types of businesses, experience is not essential but to satisfy your customers and provide a good service, technical skills play an important role.
Furthermore it is absolutely essential to keep on updating your knowledge by reading books and attending seminars to keep ahead of your competitors.
3.Marketing Skill:
Marketing is another very important essential skill on which depends the very success or failure of your business. It is the process of identifying your potential customers and persuading them to buy your products or services. Sales, Promotions, Pricing and Public Relations are some of the skills that are an essential part of marketing. Mishandling or negligence of this aspect can lead to failure.
4. Financial Skill:
Financial skills play a major role in the running of a business big or small. Book keeping, estimating, invoicing, negotiating credit terms, controlling cash flow are some aspects of the financial skills you should be able to handle. Negligence of this aspect can lead to recurring cash flow problems such as inability to purchase goods, non payment to suppliers and irregular payment of bank loans. It is obvious that with these problems no entrepreneur can succeed or have peace of mind in running a business.
5. Management Skill:
The need for management skills becomes necessary, especially if you have the intention of employing several employees. Skills in areas such as recruitment, team building, motivation, knowledge of employment law and health and safety requirements are all part of management skills. Knowledge of these skills and implementing them judiciously will help you build a team of motivated employees working for the success of your enterprise.
6. Organizational Skill:
Whether your business is big or small or whether you employ workers to run your business, your organizational skill will be tested fullyas an etrepreneur. You have to set up systems to take orders, handle enquiries and maintain records. A knowledge of these skills will help in the efficient day to day running of the business.
Conclusion:
Each and every entrepreneurial skill mentioned above is essential. If you do not possess some of these skills, acquire them. The easy way out is to go into partnership or employ someone who possesses these skills. Adopting these measures will mean that you are now on the right track to become a successful business entrepreneur.
About the Author:
Kanaga Siva is an experienced Author, Marketer and Entrepreneur. He now operates his Internet Marketing Business through his Website and Blog.
http://www.business-fromhome.com http://business-fromhome.blogspot.com
In a recent article on Yahoo! News analyst Joseph Giannone, discusses Goldman Sachs’ move towards more middle market companies. Typically in the past, the colossal Goldman Sachs has gone after blue-chip companies with its average deal size around $3 billion. The middle market is "an area historically we do not cover very well," said Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein during a Merrill Lynch investor conference in November. He said middle-market deals will be a top priority.
The new direction taken by Goldman Sachs demonstrates the new financial resources that are becoming available to both middle-market companies and even small business. As financial institutions across the board are seeking more profits and have technology that allows more efficient client servicing, these institutions are moving to capture smaller and smaller clients. Thus we are seeing large powerhouses like Goldman Sachs moving into the middle-market sectors. Similarly regional banks that once only served the middle-market segment now are moving to serve more aggressively small business client.
As Giannone’s article as points out, companies should also be wary when larger players like Goldman Sachs enter the game. These institutions are taking a profit risk by loss of fee sizes from smaller middle-market companies. Where they are trying to make up for this is in auxiliary services such as M&A advisory, direct principal investing, and other activities that they typically don’t perform for large-cap corporations. However, if profits don’t materialize as projected, these large institutions could easily pull out causing havoc for the middle-market sector.
Other groups such as CitiBank and Merrill Lynch will be following suit with Goldman Sachs. In short, middle-market executives are wise to take advantage of these big name capital institutions entering the market. However, they should do so cautiously and with the use of outside financing consultants and investment advisors before teaming with the big boys.
Taking part in a merger can be fraught with pitfalls. But many companies fail to invest the time and effort in what can be a make or break move for the businesses concerned.
Without careful planning, the tie-up can present a huge burden which can take years to resolve - reducing the business advantages of the merger and sapping the strength of the new, combined operation.
Mary Erb, from leading corporate law firm
Heatons, lists a dozen key steps to achieving a successful merger:
1) Spend a lot of time identifying and researching potential business partners - don't just go with the first proposal that presents itself.
2) Make sure there is a good 'cultural' fit as well as a sound commercial one.
3) Ensure you appoint respected and experienced professional advisers to represent you.
4) Involve your bank or institutional funder as early as possible.
5) Be prepared to dedicate a lot of time to negotiations with the management team of the other business and their advisers. Ensure you have sufficient information about them on which to agree terms for the deal.
6) Following negotiations, heads of terms will be drawn up. As well as recording the fundamentals of the deal, these will probably grant each party a period of exclusivity to undertake financial and legal due diligence. Use this period wisely. Establish exactly what you are intending to achieve - is it as sound a commercial move as you expected and are those magical 'synergies' really going to appear in an acceptable timeframe.
7) Check your bank is still supportive. If they are, ask them to detail the terms of their commitment.
8) Examine the continuity of suppliers and transferability of any contracts affected by the merger.
9) Check whether key staff will remain committed after the deal has been done - keep them well and carefully informed to avoid confusion about the deal.
10) Don't neglect your existing business during the merger process - the corporate graveyard is littered with sound businesses that fell apart because management took their eyes off the ball.
11) Don't forget that you may need the approval of your shareholders in order to complete the deal.
12) If you've reached this point and are satisfied that all relevant areas have been addressed satisfactorily, completion can take place. Congratulations!
A final word of warning. Don't underestimate the time, resources, energy, enthusiasm and commitment that will be needed after completion of the merger to successfully integrate the businesses.
From the
Business Opportunities Blog
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