How do you handle a difficult negotiation?

Hi Sara, 

To start with we must define the word Difficult in negotiation terms, do we mean the other party reps. are known to be blunt and hard to talk with or do we mean an extraordinary amount of money worth of negotiation, or both .

In the military it is very essential to know about your enemy's history,preparations , plans , strategies, manoeuvres ,trends, power,, targets, etc same applies to negotiation techniques. Best of luck.

Always trying to take the situation from the the opposite point of view and imagining why is this person related to this idea so much . From this point you can come up with suggestions not far away from his idea and the goal you're trying to achieve

You can handle a difficult negotiation through studing the facts and learning and disussion them with a close person you trust and build upon the neacessary arguments to achieve a win-win perpective.  Do not show any stress during a difficult negotiation as the other will take notes and play a difficult key.

Some negotiators seem to believe that hard-bargaining tactics are the key to success. They resort to threats, extreme demands, and even unethical behaviour to try to get the upper hand in a negotiation.

In fact, negotiators who fall back on hard-bargaining strategies in negotiation are typically betraying a lack of understanding about the gains that can be achieved in most business negotiations. When negotiators resort to hard-bargaining tactics, they convey that they view negotiation as a win-lose enterprise. A small percentage of business negotiations that concern only one issue, such as price, can indeed be viewed as win-lose negotiations, or distributive.

To prevent your negotiation from disintegrating into hard-bargaining tactics, you first need to make a commitment not to engage in these tactics yourself. Remember that there are typically better ways of meeting your goals, such as building trust, asking lots of questions, and exploring differences.

Next, you need to prepare for your counterpart’s hard-bargaining tactics. To do so, you first will have to be able to identify them. In their book Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes, Robert Mnookin, Scott Peppet, and Andrew Tulumello offer advice to avoid being caught off-guard by hard bargainers. The better prepared we are for hard-bargaining strategies in negotiation, the better able we will be to defuse them.

Here is a list of the 10 hardball tactics in negotiation to watch out for from the authors of Beyond Winning:

1.        Extreme demands followed up by small, slow concessions. Perhaps the most common of all hard-bargaining tactics, this one protects dealmakers from making concessions too quickly. However, it can keep parties from making a deal and unnecessarily drag out business negotiations. To head off this tactic, have a clear sense of your own goals, best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA), and bottom line – and don’t be rattled by an aggressive opponent.

2.        Commitment tactics. Your opponent may say that his hands are tied or that he has only limited discretion to negotiate with you. Do what you can to find out if these commitment tactics are genuine. You may find that you need to negotiate with someone who has greater authority to do business with you.

3.        Take-it-or-leave-it negotiation strategy. Offers should rarely be nonnegotiable. To defuse this hard-bargaining tactic, try ignoring it and focus on the content of the offer instead, then make a counter-offer that meets both parties’ needs.

4.        Inviting unreciprocated offers. When you make an offer, you may find that your counterpart asks you to make a concession before making a counteroffer herself. Don’t bid against yourself by reducing your demands; instead, indicate that you are waiting for a counteroffer.

5.        Trying to make you flinch. Sometimes you may find that your opponent keeps making greater and greater demands, waiting for you to reach your breaking point and concede. Name the hard-bargaining tactic and clarify that you will only engage in a reciprocal exchange of offers.

6.        Personal insults and feather ruffling. Personal attacks can feed on your insecurities and make you vulnerable. Take a break if you feel yourself getting flustered, and let the other party know that you won’t tolerate insults and other cheap ploys.

7.        Bluffing, puffing, and lying. Exaggerating and misrepresenting facts can throw you off guard. Be skeptical about claims that seem too good to be true and investigate them closely.

8.        Threats and warnings. Want to know how to deal with threats? The first step is recognizing threats and oblique warnings as the hard-bargaining tactics they are. Ignoring a threat and naming a threat can be two effective strategies for defusing them.

9.        Belittling your alternatives. The other party might try to make you cave in by belittling your BATNA. Don’t let her shake your resolve.

10.     Good cop, bad cop. When facing off with a two-negotiator team, you may find that one person is reasonable and the other is tough. Realize that they are working together and don’t be taken in by such hard-bargaining tactics.

Hi Sarah, This depends on the criteria of the negotiation. If it is about a salary of a position, you would look at the position of the job, area of the job(work environment) , if you will go out of your way to achieve the task set then the employee should pay you more. If it's getting a new client you must define why each task and terms of payment so that the client can understand before signing the Service Level Agreement. So in both cases clear communication is required to put you in a better position in the negotiation.

I would personally say negotiation is not a difficulty ,we should treat as an opprtunity of taking the 1st hand. When you treat it as an opportunity you will never want to let it slip out of your hands. Winning the deal is not important but winning loyalty is important. We never know by negotiation in the 1st deal can lead us to profits in the coming up deals and probably you do not have to negotiate later on. Listening is also a key to success over this situation and building a healthy relationship too. At last its best to confuse them when you cannot convince them. Never let anybody leave you table thinking you are a loser or they themselves. Always allow space and time to let them come back to you by leaving a clue...

If you have set up properly the parameters of the negotiation, you will never get into a "difficult" negotiation. In the case of a very tense situation wherein both parties are locked into positions, a temporary break from the negotiating table can help to diffuse the situation and force the parties to eventually compromise.

There are five point of handling a difficult negotiation 01 i will meet them in a privately where they may be more flexible.02 neuttral location.03 speakless and listen carefuly in very professional way.04 i will staisfy to them with the solution. 05.focus on consequence.