On the Skills of Business Negotiation
With the rapid development of China's economy, especially after China's entry into WTO, China enterprises are facing more and more international business negotiations. In the negotiation, both sides hope to get the maximum benefit and often face conflicts of interest. When there is a conflict, it is necessary to distinguish between problems and substantive interests, create a win-win solution, and solve the conflict of interests in negotiations with the help of objective standards.
International business communication is an important part of international relations and the main theme of international communication in peacetime. With the promotion of market economy and the further expansion of opening to the outside world, international business negotiations, as a prelude to commercial wars, appear more and more frequently in China's economy. The so-called negotiation, its general meaning is that in social life, in order to meet their own needs and safeguard their own interests, the two sides properly solve a certain problem through negotiation. Someone once said that "life itself is an endless negotiation", which is not unreasonable. Business negotiation refers to the negotiation of various trading conditions between the two parties in order to realize the transaction of a certain commodity or service. With the development of commodity society and economy, the extension of commodity concept is also expanding, including not only all labor products, but also capital, technology, information and services. Therefore, business negotiation refers to all forms of commodity transaction negotiation, such as commodity supply and demand negotiation, technology introduction and transfer negotiation, investment negotiation, etc.
First, business negotiation language skills
Language skills in business negotiation-successful business negotiation is the result of excellent use of language art by both parties.
1 negotiation wins.
The purpose of negotiation is to achieve a win-win situation. But in real life, it is rare for one to squeeze orange juice and another to bake a cake with orange peel. You are sitting in front of a buyer with the same purpose. There is no win-win solution here. He wants the lowest price, and you want the highest price. He wants to take the money out of your pocket and put it in his pocket. Powersalesnegotiating is completely different. It can teach you how to win at the negotiating table and make the other side feel that they have won. In fact, it is this ability that determines whether a person can become a master negotiator. Just like playing chess, using strong sales negotiation skills must follow a specific set of rules. The biggest difference between negotiation and playing chess is that the other party doesn't know these rules when negotiating, and can only predict your chess path.
2 The main principles of sales negotiation
Don't just talk about one issue when negotiating. If all other problems are solved, only price negotiation is left in the end, then the result can only be a lose and a win. If you leave a few more questions at the negotiating table, you can always find an exchange to reach a fair deal. People have different negotiating purposes. The biggest misunderstanding of salespeople is that price is the dominant issue in negotiations. Obviously, many other factors are equally important to each other, such as the quality of products or services, timely delivery and flexible payment terms. Don't push your luck, don't be too greedy. Don't get all the benefits in the negotiation. You may think you won, but what's the use of your victory if the buyer thinks you beat him? So leave some benefits for the other party and make him feel that he has won the negotiation.
What criteria should win-win negotiations meet?
We will pay attention to some principles and skills when negotiating. When buyers and sellers reach an agreement, we usually see that both sides are trying their best to safeguard their own interests. Usually negotiations are also the easiest to focus on the price. For example, a shrewd seller will talk about his products and try to raise the price of his products and bid as high as possible; And another extraordinary buyer will also find fault in the egg and point out the shortcomings of the product from different angles, so as to keep the price to a minimum. Both sides will give countless reasons, which will eventually bring the negotiations to a deadlock. If it's not a deadlock, it's usually one side that makes concessions, or after several rounds, both sides make concessions, thus reaching a middle price. This kind of negotiation is very common in our business activities.
The above negotiation method is called "position debate negotiation" in negotiation science. The characteristic of defense negotiation is that both sides are defending their positions and reaching an agreement through a series of concessions. Advocacy negotiation belongs to the most common traditional negotiation mode. However, we believe that if everyone follows such negotiation principles and skills in business activities, then negotiations will fall into a misunderstanding. However, the lesson we have learned from practice is that such negotiations sometimes lead to the end of the negotiations and even destroy the opportunities for further cooperation between the two sides in the future.
Therefore, we are here to propose the goals to be achieved and the problems to be solved in the negotiations. From a commercial point of view, negotiations should give both sides opportunities for development.
Skills and principles of business negotiation
In business negotiations, the two sides are not hostile after all, but have no conflicts and contradictions of interests. In negotiations without any skills and principles, negotiators often get into trouble, either making the negotiations deadlocked, or both sides always feel that their goals have not been achieved after reaching an agreement, or one side of the negotiations always seems to lose a game.
On the premise of long-term cooperation and sincerity between the two negotiating parties, we put forward the concept of "trilogy of business negotiation", that is, the negotiation steps should be three processes: declaring value, creating value and overcoming obstacles to reaching an agreement.
1 declared value. This stage is the primary stage of negotiation, and both sides of the negotiation should fully communicate to meet each other's needs. The key step in this stage is to find out the real needs of the other party, so its main skill is to ask more questions to the other party and explore their needs; At the same time, explain our interests according to the situation. Because the more you know each other's real needs, the more you know how to meet each other's requirements; At the same time, the other party can understand your interests and further meet your requirements. We also see that there are many so-called "business negotiation skills" to induce the other party, not knowing your real needs and interests, and even trying to mislead the other party, fearing that the other party will know your details and ask you for money at random. In our view, this is not the general principle of negotiation. If you always mislead each other, it is likely that you will eventually suffer.
2. Create value. This stage is the intermediate stage of the negotiation. The two sides communicate with each other, explain their respective interests and understand each other's real needs. However, the agreement reached in this way is not necessarily in the best interests of both parties. That is, when the interests cannot be effectively balanced. Even if a balance is reached, it is not the best solution. Therefore, in the negotiation, both sides need to seek the best solution, so that both sides can maximize their interests and create value in this step.
3. Overcome obstacles. This stage is often the last stage of negotiations. The obstacles to negotiation generally come from two aspects: first, the conflict of interests between the two sides of the negotiation; The other is the negotiators' own obstacles. The first obstacle is the need for both sides to coordinate their interests according to the objective principle of fairness and reasonableness; The latter requires the barrier-free party to take the initiative to help the other party make a smooth decision.
How to deal with emotional conflicts in negotiations?
In the negotiation, in addition to conceptual issues, human factors and emotional expression also have an important impact on the negotiation. Of course, we will expect the emotional leakage of the negotiating opponents to help the negotiations go smoothly. Emotional leakage is unpredictable for both sides of the negotiation. Sometimes, improper handling, intensified contradictions, so that negotiations can not extricate themselves from the state. The two sides will never give in to each other to take care of "face". As a result, it is difficult for both sides to cooperate any longer. Experienced negotiators suggest not to use face-to-face hard methods to deal with emotional conflicts in negotiations. Taking a tough solution will often escalate the conflict, but it is not conducive to the continuation of negotiations. To deal with the problem of excessive emotions, we may wish to solve it from the following three aspects.
1. First, pay attention to and understand each other's emotions, including your own.
If your negotiating partner is very angry or angry with you, then be sure to pay close attention to each other's mood swings, including your own. We must first find out why the other party is angry. Is the other party trying to get revenge, or does personal family problems interfere with business problems? Is the other party trying to get your concession by losing his temper, or is it an emotional catharsis when the other party is helpless? Finding out the reason is the ultimate solution to the problem. However, in the case of emotional instability, it is not appropriate to rush to explain and clarify.
2. Let the opponent's emotions vent.
It is not the best time to solve the problem when the other person's emotions are still venting. At this time, the best way is to listen to each other quietly and never strike back. In order to make the other person's mood stable, we should guide the other person to explain the reasons clearly and let the other person continue to vent to the best moment.
3. Use symbolic body language to ease emotional conflicts.
In business, winning or losing personal feelings has no real meaning. Figuring out who is right and who is wrong is not the ultimate goal. Negotiators pursue a win-win situation on the basis of realizing the interests of both parties. Therefore, when easing emotional conflicts, some symbolic body language can often play an unexpected role in reversing the situation, such as shaking hands with each other and sending a small gift to show that you are invited to dinner. Experienced negotiators believe that apologizing by behavior is the lowest cost and highest return investment in negotiation.
To sum up, when the two sides have a dispute on a certain issue, they hold their own opinions, don't give in to each other, or even talk without enthusiasm, and put on a cold face, which makes people feel depressed and dull more easily. In this case, we can suggest that the talks be suspended temporarily, or that people from both sides go sightseeing, attend banquets, watch cultural programs, or go to recreation rooms, clubs and other places for entertainment and rest. In this way, in a relaxed and happy environment, everyone's mood will naturally relax. More importantly, through play, rest and private contact, the two sides can better understand each other, eliminate the barriers between them, and continue to exchange views on deadlocked issues in an informal way, making serious discussions and negotiations easy, lively, harmonious and pleasant. At this time, we are happy with each other and people become generous. An unsolvable problem that has been debated at the negotiating table for hours may be solved here.