What is the best thing you can do when negotiating with someone who clearly is a better negotiator?

Dear Aya

To my understanding if this is the case, one has to1. listen very well-do not talk much and2. Never volunteer information and especially important information.. The aim is not to have the other party understanding easily your weaknesses.  Of course since you may not know some information-knowledge do ask one or two questions regarding these info-knowledge. Praise him/her for knowing these infos and encourage him/her to go little further and deeper. Try to BUY  and not SELL!!Also one should find out in which areas s/he is inferior to the other party and accordingly in  the discussion-negotiation should not be stressed that much these areas. perhaps the person who is obviously inferior should stress more these areas s/he is superior or at least in the same level with the other party. Stick to the weaknesses of the other party-real or perceived ones. Never make financial commitments on the spot if the other party does not compensate for this equally!! Play it cool if you have the upper hand in terms of need. E.g if the other party needs you more than you need her/him ,ask for more  and more-play offence..

If there is a second or third round of negotiation cycles work really hard to improve your weaknesses

Dear Aya,

Thanks for the candid question. The best thing you can do while negotiating with a good negotiator is to respect the person first, do not emphasize on positions, instead have a friendly dialogue over the interests, get to know the commonalities more and never take the whole process as a competition and break into an arguement. If you are selling something to someone, and if negotiation is the need of the hour, then get to know the need/want for the service/product you are offering and build your way upto closing the gap between dialogue and reaching the closing position over friendly dialgoue. I am sure the better negotiator will respect this, if there is no need/want on behalf of the better negotiator, then you shouldn't proceed with thr process. Ensure that each of you have a losing stance as well, hide yours though.

you can give full sentences that does not hold any information, this way you will keep the talking going on and knowing more where the other party wants to reach.answer every quastion of his with a sentence that ends with a question to make him answer his question at the end.

it depends you are negotiating over what? being specific always the best way to get what you want in the shosrtest time. 

Listen from whaht he said and there, take a clue - start from there. Never say anything that will jeopardize your negotiation or your budget at all. Be cautious!

Hello dear Aya,

Following the other two suggestions, which it is good to take them also under consideration here is mine.

Firstly, it is important to ask the question "who asked for this meeting?" You or the other person? If you asked  for this meeting then you have to be accurate with2-3 fundamental things in every meeting you can have.

• How much time do you have for this meeting?
• Then define which is your goal
• Define which are the data or the situation and
• finally get to the point

You have to have in your brain all the time that it must be a win-win meeting and not win-lose or lose-win or lose-lose. You have to positively thinking and visualize the positive win-win result of that meeting before the meeting and during that.

If you go with the mentality that it is better than you, is like you have already signed for a negative result, before even you meet him/her. He/she is a human and you must see him/her as another human. If you both choose to cooperate then ok if you don't then again ok.

I hope I gave you another prospective and understanable one.

If you want anything please do not hesitate to ask for.

Thank you.

Dear Aya,

the most important is to listen more, talk less. Of course, as in all negotiations, you should be very well prepared. BUT, treat the exchange as a conversation instead of an argument. There is a distinction between competitive and cooperative approach. Constantly test the other side, try a tactic, see how they react and how flexible will be. Understand their interests and things that are important to them. Discover how many concessions they are going to be willing to make to you. Avoid making proposals that they have little or no chance of being accepted, which can save time and minimize frustration in both sides.

DONT' FORGET: the more rigorous you are in preparing a detailed, specific understanding of the other party and their perspectives, the better your negotiated results are likely to be.

Thank you and regards from Athens.

Martha

Other members here said enough for what you can and need to do i will only add the following.

* Think, plan, play your cards in the right time & be confident.* If you know a head that the other party have the upper hand or better than you! that it self is an advantage for you to plan better ahead and get the best tools to support you or colleges if avaliable.

1. Expert WitnessFind strength in numbers. Nobody says you have to face your opponent alone. Bring in colleagues who are experts in different aspects of the issue(s). This may help you to refute your opponent's points (and sometimes to stretch the truth a little).2. Information OverloadPrepare every information you are able to find on the issue, including those that have very little to do with it (these may include newspaper clippings and student papers). There is usually a minute correlation to your issue(s) if you look hard enough. Negotiators looking to settle the issues quickly would usually be confounded by the amount of information that they have to go through to do it.3. Good Cop Bad CopPlay the psychological game with the help of a colleague. One of you plays hardball, disagreeing with everything your opponent says no matter what, and bulldozing in with outrageous demands; while the other smooths things over later by offering to settle with what you intended in the first place

learn from him/her :)

First i'll focus on his negotiation way & I'll make2nd meeting with him after i collect all informations that will support me to win the next negotiation with him