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3 Tips for Increasing Your Negotiating Skills

So how do you increase your skills at negotiation?

1. Research. Knowledge is power. Start with the product if you looking to purchase a product. If you are trying to persuade another, then focus on the other person and their background, situation, culture and paradigms.

One of the basic tenets of negotiation is that the person who knows the most about the deal/product/other side’s interests is more likely to get the most concessions.

Haggling at a garage sale does not give you much time to research, but you would be surprised what you can find out in small talk prior to making an offer on an item.

There are some personalities that need to make a production where they yell and curse about how curse about how unfair a deal is in order to satisfy their ego or show off for their colleagues when they fully intended to accept it all along.

Talking to someone who knows the person you are dealing with and their quirks and antics can be very helpful prior to hashing out a deal with them.

2. Study the body language. I have read books that say that 80% of communication is non-verbal. In the book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell he tells about “micro-expressions” and about a researcher who was able to accurately judge whether a couple would or wouldn’t stay together after only 15 minutes of observing their body language.

If you have never read a book about non-verbal communication, check one out from your library and start to recognize the basics. You will be surprised to find how revealing our body language can be.

3. Start a negotiation journal. Every time you negotiate, write about the experience. You should include the various positions in the negotiation, the body language, and techniques that each side was using.

In your journal, you should also make note of your thoughts, impressions, and the attitudes and/or tones of the conversation. This exercise will help you develop your observation skills.

Negotiators with good observation skills and even a fundamental knowledge of body language will know when to ask for concessions and when the lower limit has been reached.

As you add more and more entries in your journal you will start to tease out patterns from your negotiation. You will start to see how the body language will coincide with the change of their position.

The awkward feeling of asking for concessions will go away and you will begin to ask with more confidence which will yield higher concessions still.

Some people call negotiation a game or a dance. Although it can be and often is, it is also a practice in communication and human behavior. Whether you love to haggle or not, by following these tips you will become a better negotiator.

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Be Amazed at How Many Billions Are Presently Enrolled in Debt Settlement Programs

If you’re someone that reads a newspaper, listens to the radio, watches T.V. or surfs the internet, then you’ve obviously heard and seen the zillions of advertisements that guarantee quick and almost painless debt relief, and the most widespread magic potion right now is debt settlement

If you were drowning in debt, and got a reply from a debt settlement company that read like this, “We are generally able to settle debts for about 40 cents on the dollar and have our clients debt free in a very short period of time on a low monthly payment plan and we charge the lowest fees in the industry”.

Then you’d most likely feel that your prayers had been answered, and they might have been, because most debt settlement companies do work hard for their fee, and they do help people.

The biggest problem that presently exists is that the continuing financial crisis has spawned a multitude of new companies that just want to rip off people that are already in big trouble, and right now the debt settlement industry is largely unregulated, and only about a dozen states have laws that govern debt settlement.

The next biggest problem is, that most Americans with serious debt trouble have almost no knowledge about the different ways that exist for getting out of debt, and they usually have next to no idea of the differences between, credit counseling, debt consolidation and debt settlement.

All three of the above can work, and a good credit counseling agency will quite often recommend either debt consolidation or debt settlement, but the two things are completely different and what suits one debtor won’t suit another.

What They Are And What They Aren’t

Debt Consolidation
a) Using a single loan such as a home equity loan to pay off multiple debts at full price.

b) The biggest advantage is usually the lower interest rates, but debt consolidation loans are becoming much more difficult to obtain.

c) This option is generally credit score neutral.

Debt Settlement
a) You’ll generally have to owe at least $7,500 and be at least sixty to ninety days in arrears before you can enter into the debt settlement process.

b) During the 60-90 days you will be pestered by debt collectors.

c) Not all companies will agree to debt settlement although most will, and they all prefer it to bankruptcy.

d) You will have smaller monthly payments.

e) You will damage your credit rating, but how much will depend on your previous rating.

Credit Counseling
a) Involves paying a small fee, which is usually under $100 to a service that offers budgeting advice and will often negotiate lower fees and interest rates with debtors for an additional monthly fee.

b) Debtors pay the counseling service, which in turn pays the lenders.

Bankruptcy
a) A federal judge will consider your debts and assets, and decide which debts get paid and which get erased.

b) Bankruptcy is more and more frequently the only alternative for many people, but it has the longest negative impact on credit ratings, and it is quickly becoming far more complicated to do than it once was.

How Many Companies And How Much Money?
According to the debt settlement’s lobbying group, The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC), there are perhaps 1,000 firms that presently offer debt settlement services, and an amazing $20 billion in consumer debt is currently enrolled in debt settlement programs.

What Can Be Done And What Can’t
Andrew Housser, who sits on the board of The Association of Settlement Companies, said that settlement firms offer an important service to customers in certain circumstances, but added that the big influx of new settlement firms, many of which are being run by former mortgage industry workers are getting the industry a bad name.

“Hundreds of companies are flooding into this and frankly some of them don’t know what they are doing. There’s been explosive growth, and unfortunately you get some good players and some bad players”.

TASC (The Association of Settlement Companies) is actively supporting regulation in 24 states, in an attempt to reign in abusive companies, and it’s also self-policing its 200+ members and investigating complaints against other settlement firms lodged via the association’s web site, TASCsite.org.

Housser also said that credit counseling isn’t a viable alternative for many indebted consumers.

“For example, consumers who enroll in credit counseling generally still face high monthly payments, because counselors can only negotiate lower interest rates and friendlier loan terms and not principal reductions and many debtors can’t afford those payments”.

He then offered an advantage that debt settlement sometimes has over credit counseling.

“Some people fit in sweet spot of debt settlement, where they can’t afford credit counseling programs but still have some income. We give them a program to work out their debt for less than face value and typical monthly payments for debt settlement are 1 to 1.5% of total debt, vs. 2 to 3% for debt counseling. Total settlement fees typically average about15% of debt, meaning a consumer with $10,000 in debt would pay $1,500 to a debt settlement company for help”.

He justified the seemingly fees, saying that “debt negotiation is a very labor intensive business and legitimate companies clearly list their fees up front, and don’t pile on extraneous charges”.

The Best Advice
If you’ve tried different debt reduction techniques and none have worked for you, and you’re getting deeper into debt every month and have to do something, then be careful not to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

Regardless of whether you decide to go to a credit counseling agency, or a company that offers debt settlement and/or debt consolidation, only choose a company that is BBB (Better Business Bureau) affiliated, and don’t sign anything that you don’t fully understand, even if it means having a lawyer explain the finer details to you.

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The Art of Presentation Skills – Creating Mental Stimulation

Let’s say you have a room full of people you are looking to train, or influence. You have a lot of information to convey to this group of people, how should you do it? What is the most cost effective, time appropriate, and let us not forget easiest way to do this? Better yet the most important question to ask one’s self is how can I get this group of people interested, gain their trust and keep it throughout the process.

In either instance, a speech would do, but it may come across as tedious or even worse, boring. If you have information that must be conveyed starting with a “boring” speech type proposal is certainly the quickest way to lose the attention of your audience. Once you lose the attention of your audience, it is gone, working on regaining their attention is also a lost cause, start strong and never lose their attention.

Here is a novel idea make your statement(s) via a presentation. Presentations have the ability to hold the attention of your audience as well as “highlight” or pinpoint any information that must be retained. The intriguing idea behind presentations is that they allow mental stimulation as well as visual stimulation. By combing mental stimulation with audio stimulation, you are entertaining two of the five senses; thus allowing the memory retentive area of your audience’s brain to step in and help the brain “absorb” and process the information provided easier.

Before you start your presentation, there are a two key steps to keep in mind:

1. Know the subject you are trying to convey

Who wants to listen to someone that has no idea what he or she is talking about? If you want someone to listen to you, and find your information valid, make an effort and put in the time dedicated to research your topic(s). If someone asks you a follow-up question or questions the last thing you want to say, “Uh I’m not sure,” all creditability is lost from the time you mutter the word “Uh.” Know your stuff, be able to recite the information in your sleep, and make sure that you are ready for any question or questions that may be thrown at you. Keep in mind that the information you are presenting can only be as credible as the person presenting it, and you will be sure to check and recheck the facts as often as necessary.

2. Know your audience

Who is your audience? Who are the people that you will be presenting to? When making a presentation it is important to keep your audience in mind. They are the people you are looking to “convince”, if you are not able to pinpoint your target audience you are not going to be able to tailor the information accordingly. For instance, a younger audience may do better with an Internet based technology chat, whereas an older audience may get lost in the idea of the Internet. Before presenting any information, make sure you aware of your audience, who they are and the best way to convey your message.

Remember our ultimate goal here is mental stimulation, by stimulating our audience’s brain we can keep them interested, entertained, and help the information “sink” in. By following the guidelines outlined above, we can engage our audience in a presentation that not only teaches them but also allows them the opportunity to advance their knowledge.

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