We all negotiate on a daily basis. We negotiate with our spouses, children, parents, and friends. We negotiate when we rent an apartment, buy a car, purchase a house, and apply for a job. Your ability to negotiate might even be the most important factor in your career advancement. Negotiation is also the key to business success. No organization can survive without contracts that produce profits. At a strategic level, businesses are concerned with value creation and achieving competitive advantage. But the success of high-level business strategies depends on contracts made with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Contracting capability—the ability to negotiate and perform successful contracts—is the most important function in any organization. This book is designed to help you achieve success in your personal negotiations and in your business transactions. The book is unique in two ways. First, the book not only covers negotiation concepts, but also provides practical actions you can take in future negotiations. This includes a Negotiation Planning Checklist and a completed example of the checklist for your use in future negotiations. The book also includes (1) a tool you can use to assess your negotiation style; (2) examples of “decision trees,” which are useful in calculating your alternatives if your negotiation is unsuccessful; (3) a three-part strategy for increasing your power during negotiations; (4) a practical plan for analyzing your negotiations based on your reservation price, stretch goal, most-likely target, and zone of potential agreement; (5) clear guidelines on ethical standards that apply to negotiations; (6) factors to consider when deciding whether you should negotiate through an agent; (7) psychological tools you can use in negotiations—and traps to avoid when the other side uses them; (8) key elements of contract law that arise during negotiations; and (9) a checklist of factors to use when you evaluate your performance as a negotiator. Second, the book is unique in its holistic approach to the negotiation process. Other books often focus narrowly either on negotiation or on contract law. Furthermore, the books on negotiation tend to focus on what happens at the bargaining table without addressing the performance of an agreement. These books make the mistaken assumption that success is determined by evaluating the negotiation rather than evaluating performance of the agreement. Similarly, the books on contract law tend to focus on the legal requirements for a contract to be valid, thus giving short shrift to the negotiation process that precedes the contract and to the performance that follows. In the real world, the contracting process is not divided into independent phases. What happens during a negotiation has a profound impact on the contract and on the performance that follows. The contract’s legal content should reflect the realities of what happened at the bargaining table and the performance that is to follow. This book, in contrast to others, covers the entire negotiation process in chronological order beginning with your decision to negotiate and continuing through the evaluation of your performance as a negotiator. A business executive in one of the negotiation seminars the author teaches as a University of Michigan professor summarized negotiation as follows: “Life is negotiation!” No one ever stated it better. As a mother with young children and as a company leader, the executive realized that negotiations are pervasive in our personal and business lives. With its emphasis on practical action, and with its chronological, holistic approach, this book provides a roadmap you can use when navigating through your life as a negotiator.

A new title from the 'Essentials' series. Everything you need to know about successful negotiation in a striking paperback format with flaps. Following an introduction about the art of negotiation - different styles and approaches to negotiation and how it is affected by culture, the bulk of the book is an expansive A-Z with several hundred entries that explain the essentials of successful negotiation, with entries that stretch from Apples and pears and bagatelle, through Hooker's principle and lock-out, all the way to Russian front and win-win... ...and including one on children, who are described as"the world's best negotiators, who know how to get what they want, are utterly ruthless, have no sense of responsibility, have no sense of shame and have no long-term plans" whereas "parents give in to their children, give in to each other, are easily shamed and in constant states of remorse, and have long-term hopes and plans." Result "children win hands down."

"Where do you turn if you are an architect or student wanting to deepen those skill sets that will make you a more successful professional? Well, taking a look at Ava Abramowitz's new book, "The Architect's Essentials of Negotiation" will be a step in the right direction." —Robert Greenstreet, Dean, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning This is an essential guide for architects and their clients and consultants who need professional advice on negotiations, from design development to agreements and fees. Contractors will want to read it, too, especially if they are involved with Integrated Project Delivery. This new edition offers updated insights related to negotiation, with references to the AIA Contract Documents, communication, collaboration, and handling disputes, change, and claims.

What one really needs to know to become an effective negotiator, clearly and succinctly written for the layperson and businessperson. The Essential A–Z Guides are lively, practical resources for business and investment professionals, as well as politicians, public servants, and students. Each book contains hundreds of entries that concisely explain the subject’s concept in a handy reference that complements any business library. The complete series includes these four titles: Essential Economics Essential Investment Essential Negotiation Essentials for Board Directors

Describes a method of negotiation that isolates problems, focuses on interests, creates new options, and uses objective criteria to help two parties reach an agreement.

This book focuses on the tactics and strategies used in business-to-business contract negotiations. In addition to outlining general negotiation concepts, techniques and tools, it provides insight into relevant framework conditions, underlying mechanisms and also presents generally occurring terms and problems. Moreover, different negotiating styles are illustrated using an exemplary presentation of negotiation peculiarities in China, the USA and Germany. The presented tactics and strategies combine interdisciplinary psychological and economic knowledge as well as findings from the field of communication science. The application scope of these tactics and strategies covers business-to-business negotiations as well as company-internal negotiations. The fact that this book does not necessarily stipulate any prior knowledge of the subject of negotiations also makes it highly suitable for nonprofessionals with a pronounced interested in negotiations. Nonetheless, it provides proficient negotiators with a deeper understanding for situations experienced in negotiations. This book also helps practioners to identify underlying mechanisms and on this basis sustainably improve their negotiation skills.