Negotiate More Deals!

Your reputation for honesty and fair dealing may be your single most important asset as a negotiator.

In real estate, we negotiate in many different situations.  We negotiate with our client to get a listing or buyer agreement signed.  We negotiate on behalf of our client to get their offer accepted.   In addition, we negotiate with our brokers, with other realtors, with service providers and even with our prospects throughout the sales process.

We need to be excellent at negotiation if we want to be excellent at real estate sales.

The traditional negotiation style of hard bargaining makes people feel alienated, misunderstood and worn out and most often leads to a dissatisfying outcome where one party has a limited win and the other a loss.

Highly skilled negotiators use a collaborative style that seeks to understand the needs of the other side, explore possibilities, expand options and creatively solve problems to find solutions that are a win-win for both sides.

The Collaborative process begins with building trust and rapport.   Our reputation for being trustworthy and fair matters in negotiations but so does our ability to build instant rapport in situations where the parties do not have a previous relationship with us.  The art of building instant rapport has its roots in the following areas:  be present ‘and mindful by turning off our internal dialogue and our assumptions, ask questions that uncover their values and their needs, listen intently to the answers and respond appropriately to show understanding.  Our workshop, Unscripted, goes more deeply into developing these important skills.

“Trust in a negotiation is like lubricant in a car engine: things go a lot more smoothly.” 

Dr. Leigh Thompson, Professor, Northwestern University

The Collaborative Negotiator, having established trust and rapport goes on to seek understanding of a party’s needs and concerns, work with the other party to explore alternatives and options and create solutions that leave both sides with a better outcome than previously expected.

If all the parties to a negotiation are collaborative, creating win-win outcomes will be relatively easy.

Often, one or more of the other parties are not collaborative.

In these cases, begin with trying to bring them around to collaboration.  Often, just the right words will shift them to a different perspective.  “Let’s work together to find some creative solutions and get this deal done tonight.”, or “I hear that your client is adamant about the $600,000.  What else is important to your client?”

Continuing to model collaborative behaviour while at the same time, recognizing and overcoming the competitive negotiation tactics that they may be trying to use against you.  Some of these tactics include:  intimidation, good guy/bad guy, red herring, broken record, short deadlines, bluffing and many more.  When we are able to recognize these tactics in the moment, it becomes surprisingly easy to disarm and overcome them.

Not all of our negotiations will be fully collaborative but when we can skillfully bring collaboration into the process; the experience, the process and the outcome will all be significantly more successful.

Next week – check out the Blog for a post on Power in Negotiations.

“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”

Indira Gandhi

Become a Certified Negotiation Expert®.  CLICK HERE for course dates and locations.