You Have Earned Your MBA. Put Those Negotiation Skills to Use

Whether you realize it or not, you use negotiation skills in your daily life. Part of your master's level business degree was learning how to negotiate.

In your life as a businessperson you now hold the necessary skills to find work, bargain for a higher salary, meet people and have better interpersonal relationships in a professional environment. But, do you realize that you are also now well versed in leadership skills and management skills that will be utilized in personal relationships and purchasing negotiations? While retail stores may carry set prices, you will have opportunities to bargain for prices on cars, motorcycles, houses and large ticket items.

In general there are three stages to bargaining: the preparation stage, the bargaining stage and the closing the sale stage. The preparation stage involves research on items to be purchased or perhaps when applying for work, research on the company and typical salary bands in the industry. The bargaining stage occurs during a meeting of two parties that ultimately come to a satisfactory decision meeting the needs of both parties involved. The final stage is the closing of the sale and wrap up.

Many people in America do not specialize in utilizing the tool of negotiating because it is in general not a part of our culture. A good way to practice your negotiating skills is by going out with the intention of talking to people that you would like to date. Engage the person in conversation to find out their likes, dislikes and personality. Then, use your sales and bargaining skills to build rapport, develop a relationship and then finally close the sale by asking for a date or phone number. While difficult at first, if you cannot perform this simple exercise in a relaxed social environment, how would you ever be able to negotiate under the stress and pressure of a multi-million dollar business deal?

One of the most overlooked areas of negotiating is simply asking questions and being an effective listener. The trick with negotiating is finding the emotional triggers that will sway the other party's decision. The only means of finding the emotional trigger is to be actively engaged in the conversation and to ask questions. The questions asked should always have a purpose behind them. With negotiations your primary function is finding out what is valued with the product or negotiation. If implemented correctly, this strategy will produce the greatest benefit for both groups of people in the end. After all, negotiation is not about leaving the bargaining table feeling like you got cheated. In the business world, ethical decisions and bargaining processes will have a direct affect on future business dealings.

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