The questions to ask yourself, and to discuss with the other party when that makes sense, are: How could this be even better for me? How could it be even better for them? Who else could benefit? These are invitations to

But because emotions drive buying decisions, it is crucial that you uncover and address individual stakeholder criteria, with questions like these: “Tell me what success means to you?” “Can you tell me about what's most important to you?” “What problems are you personally trying to solve?” “What worries you most about the current situation?” “Can y

Identify your counterpart’s negotiating style. Once you know whether they are Accommodator, Assertive, or Analyst, you’ll know the correct way to approach them. Prepare, prepare, prepare. When the pressure is on, you don’t rise to the occasion; you fall to your highest level of preparation. So design an ambitious but legitimate goal and then game o

The goal is to identify what your counterparts actually need (monetarily, emotionally, or otherwise) and get them feeling safe enough to talk and talk and talk some more about what they want.