🔴 The COMMUNICATIVE Tools of Negotiation
In a Win-Win Perspective
Even if we’re not always fully aware of it, negotiation takes place in many everyday situations. It’s a fundamental form of interaction between individuals who have different opinions, needs or interests. Every time people try to influence others or reach a compromise, we are in the presence of a negotiation process.
Whether it’s getting someone to accept an idea, promoting a political stance, selling a product, or coming to an agreement within the family or among friends, negotiation is the tool we use to reach a result that satisfies both parties.
In politics, for instance, negotiation allows opposing views to come together and find solutions acceptable to all. In sales, we use negotiation to define the value of a product and to convince the client of the benefits of buying it. Even in personal or professional relationships, when we try to influence someone to adopt our point of view or to collaborate on a project, we are negotiating.
Negotiation is such a versatile process because it allows us to manage differences, find common ground and build workable solutions. As a cross-functional skill, it applies anywhere there's social interaction and a need to align different interests. But negotiation is also a broad and complex approach. Two or more parties aim to reach an agreement on important matters, taking into account both short-term needs and long-term objectives. It’s a dynamic process, focused on creating value for both sides, not just solving a single problem.
Now, those of us working more modestly on specific details—price, delivery terms, or contract clauses—are usually more interested in the transactional side of negotiation. It’s the shorter, more practical version of the process, aimed at getting an immediate agreement on operational issues.
Today, I want to focus on the communicative tools of negotiation, the ones that apply across all types of negotiation.
Next week, I’ll dive into something more specific: the kind of negotiation we face daily in the world of export business.
That is,
the operational, commercial, and financial tools we need to master in order to unblock stalled deals and bring them to a successful close.
But let’s stick with today’s topic: the communicative tools. A typical negotiation process is made up of five key stages:
1. Planning
Regardless of the issues or the personalities involved, negotiation usually begins with planning.
This phase starts when negotiators identify the goals they want to achieve and explore the possible alternatives for reaching them.
2. Building interpersonal relationships
The second stage involves getting to know the people on the other side of the table.
Here, the aim is to understand how reasonably open the other party is to finding a shared, satisfactory solution – in a win-win perspective.
3. Getting to know the people on the other side of the table
At this point in the process, each party presents their position on potentially critical issues.
These positions often evolve as the negotiation progresses. The goal here is to understand what the other party wants to achieve, where they might be willing to compromise, and to what extent.
4. Persuasion
No one wants to concede more than necessary – but everyone knows that without some level of concession, a final agreement is unlikely.
The success of this stage depends on how well each party understands the other’s position, how capable they are of identifying common ground and differences, how creative they are in generating new options (we’ll talk more about this next week), and how willing they are to work towards a solution that feels satisfactory for everyone involved.
5. Agreement
The final stage consists of clearly defining compromises and drafting the final agreement.
Sometimes this happens step by step, with each concession and agreement made one issue at a time.
Beyond the technical and communicative aspects, negotiators should follow a few key principles to get better results.
First: separate the people from the problem.
Those who deal with an issue for a long time often become emotionally involved, which can lead to interpreting pushback on a specific position as a personal attack.
To keep relationships intact and maintain a clear view of the matter, it’s crucial to distinguish between the issue and the person raising it.
Second: focus on interests, not positions.
Digging into interests allows us to better understand the reasons behind a party’s stance.
If you can identify your own interests and understand those of the other side, you’ll be in a much better position to defend your proposals.
Third: generating options is a key strategy for avoiding rushed decisions.
Managers—especially those from time-sensitive cultures like many in the West—can feel pressure to close the deal as quickly as possible.
But when you’re negotiating with someone who doesn’t share the same urgency, it’s useful to have several options on the table. That way, you’re less likely to end up making unsatisfactory choices.
Finally: when there are no common interests, use objective criteria.
This helps to avoid unnecessary tension. Relying on data from trusted third parties—such as legal precedents or industry benchmarks—makes it easier to create practical and legitimate standards.
If both parties agree to respect terms based on these shared criteria, chances are the proposals will feel fair and acceptable to all.
