Notes & Key Takeaways 📝
What is negotiation? Why develop this skill set?
Negotiation is happening constantly but is often called something else. There is a temptation to think about bartering, bargaining, zero-sum games, and antagonistic or confrontational exchanges. But we are constantly negotiating – what we are going to do and how we are going to work together. Often we are not even negotiating for ourselves- we are negotiating for our friends, families, children, employees, etc.
Negotiation vs. persuasion: We are selling whenever we are trying to persuade someone else of our perspective and when that perspective has real-life consequences. Negotiation is a form of persuasion.
Persuasion & sales are interrelated. Sales are a part of our everyday life (e.g., fundraising for a company or applying to a school) – we are selling when we try to persuade someone else of our perspective, which has real-life consequences.
Negotiation is often misunderstood - can be seen as a zero-sum game about money; the perspective is that it’s a confrontation with a winner and loser where the two parties never see one another again → but a lot of negotiation is about creating *even more* value than either had before; often we negotiate with the same people again and again (vs. isolated one-off in a vacuum).
Negotiation often marks the beginning of a long-term negotiation (e.g., for a job offer, you will be working with the same people afterward); you may renegotiate the terms over time, → defines the parameters of a relationship.
Negotiating a job offer:
Early on, reflect on what is most important to you in a job. Often we focus on salary, but there are many important factors, for example, resources that will help you be successful (e.g., marketing budget, headcount, work location, flexibility, and travel requirements).
Before you join is when you have the most leverage. By asking for what you need in advance, you will set yourself up for success but also likely be happier in your role and less likely to leave. It’s in the best interest of both you and the company to create a situation where you will want to stay.
The job offer negotiation is a trust-building activity (e.g., “we’ve discussed what success looks like, and I think I need XYZ to achieve those outcomes”).
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