Even if there is no panacea to solve all the world’s problems, fluency in the art of negotiating will surely help you overcome one or two of your personal worries.

To make negotiating a bit less touch-and-go, it may be useful to brush up on your negotiating skills. The first thing to do would be to reconsider the very definition of the word negotiating.

Check out: 3 Golden Rules of Negotiating 

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Glossary

• stall – delay, obstruct, or block the progress of (something)
• overcome – succeed in dealing with (a problem or difficulty)
• confer with somebody – have discussions; exchange opinions
• scrap – abolish or cancel (something, esp. a plan, policy, or law) that is now regarded as unnecessary, unwanted, or unsuitable
• upfront – in advance
• blow off steam – give vent to one’s emotions
• Spock – a character from Star Trek 

Think about it

Based on the text answer the following questions. Leave your answers in the comments below!

• How do many people understand negotiating? How do they (wrongly) define the process?
• Why does the author think a precise definition of negotiations is crucial to their success?
• What should be the goal of negotiations?
• What are some dangers of not initiating negotiations?
• What are some benefits of having a written document while negotiating?
• Why is it advisable to keep it cool? Are there any good sides to venting at all?

Practice makes perfect

In the sentences below replace the phrases in bold with the expressions from the original text. Leave your answers in the comments below!

• The art of negotiating is difficult to grasp for most of us, even good salespeople, because not many take the time to correctly understand the word [. . .]
• This original meaning is vital to understand because the goal of negotiating is to continue doing business by discussing with another to reach an agreement.
• [. . .] I will even break in to stop the other side from controlling the starting point. Sounds weird, but that is how significant starting the transaction is.
• Immediately after I make a proposal, I refer to a document that is being created in front of the client.
• Great negotiators know how to keep their composure, providing leadership and solutions, while the rest of the room becomes insanely absorbed by personal agendas and useless emotions.

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing articles (a, an, the) or leave them blank.

_______ art of negotiating escapes most of us, even ______ good salespeople, because ______ few take ______ time to correctly understand the word and follow ______ golden rules of negotiating.

______ first and biggest error is ______ misunderstanding of ______ word. When I ask ______ people at my Closers workshop what ______ word “negotiating” means, I get ______ answers like, “how good ______ deal can I get” and “how cheap can I buy.” For many people, it’s ______ process of ______ painful tactics of stall and overcome or a give and take mostly involving ______ surrender of ______ price and terms.

“Negotiate” comes from ______ Latin negotiatus, which is ______ past participle of negotiari, and means to carry on business. This original meaning is critical to understand because ______ goal of ______ negotiating is to continue doing ______ business by conferring with another to arrive at ______ agreement.

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