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Ask HN: how can I practice negotiation?

by Stuk on 4/13/11, 10:46 PM with 34 comments

• by rdoherty on 4/13/11, 11:09 PM

  Practice by negotiating every day on small things. Someone wants to schedule a meeting at 3? Push for another time. Buying new tires for your car? Ask for a discount, say you won't pay more than X.

  That's how I've improved my negotiating skills. Start small, build confidence, learn how to deal with hearing 'No'. Everything is negotiable.

• by kovar on 4/14/11, 12:04 AM

  Go buy a car. Go buy a lot of cars. Go buy a car while pretending to be broke. Go buy another one while thinking you've got a million in cash in the bank. Buy a used car. Buy a new car. (I don't feel bad about consuming car salespeople's time...)

  Go to a market in Italy and try to buy anything without haggling. They can negotiate the price of a $10 necklace.

  Go to a flea market and find something you want. Try to get a lower price.

• by andrewstuart on 4/13/11, 11:11 PM

  I negotiate deals pretty much every day. Here is the best book I ever read on negotiation http://amzn.to/ggXkLl

  For me, the key to negotiation is to try to get to a fair deal for everyone, not a deal in which someone wins and someone loses. Ask everyone involved what they want out of the deal, what they think would be a fair outcome. Where there is a gap between what the parties want, ask each party how far they are willing to move.

  Don't do deals that are unbalanced or unfair because the deal falls apart a bit further down the track leaving people feeling annoyed, angry, let down, ripped off.

  Remember if the parties are too far apart on what they want then probably there is no deal to be done. Just let it go - no deal, move on and do business somewhere else.

• by idlewords on 4/13/11, 11:08 PM

  Get married

• by anthonyb on 4/13/11, 11:00 PM

  Might be a bit off the wall, but playing strategy games has helped my negotiation skills fairly substantially. Anything where you sit down and hammer out alliances/agreements with other players, so Diplomacy (both face-to-face and online), Settlers (face-to-face; online tends to be a bit boring) and other more hard core ones like Olympia and Atlantis.

  Alternatively, head down to your local markets around closing time :)

• by jerrykern on 4/14/11, 12:08 AM

  If you can get some people to play with you, both Northwestern University (through the Dispute Resolution Research Center), and Harvard (through their HBR cases) have negotiation scenario games that teach specific, learnable skills. Totally worth the effort, but it'll cost you to buy the cases. Both use those tools in teaching MBA negotiation classes.

• by dreamux on 4/14/11, 12:03 AM

  If you're looking for a book on the subject, try: http://www.amazon.com/You-Negotiate-Anything-Herb-Cohen/dp/0...

  You Can Negotiate Anything is a classic, and very inexpensive investment considering the upside.

  I can't give you any advice that you won't find in this book.

  Good luck.

• by Mz on 4/14/11, 12:10 AM

  Getting to Yes and Mind and heart of the negotiator were required texts for the college class I took on Negotiation and Conflict Management. IIRC, they are both research-based. The first is a quick read, the second is a lot meatier.

  http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Heart-Negotiator-Leigh-Thompson/d...

  The class is available online via CSU-Bakersfield if you care to spend some mulah and a few months on it. When I took it (a zillion years ago, not terribly long after my pet dinosaur and rotary phone went extinct), we did a round of practice negotiations towards the end of class. It was awesome. I have no idea if it has changed any.

  Peace.

• by anigbrowl on 4/13/11, 11:15 PM

  I'll give you a full answer for $10. In the meantime, try this: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/negotiation/tactics/tac...

• by MikeHo on 4/14/11, 12:02 AM

  Learn negotiation and make $ while your at it ...

  Go on craigslist, search for a hot turn over market such as blackberries or iphones -- most people have their contact # on the actual ad.

  Shoot them an offer of 15% below lowest listed price to market median .. i.e blackberry 9700, 175 - 200 - 225 - shoot them an offer of $150-160 -- if you get it great, resell for $200/225.

  Repeat with any high turnover product you're comfortable with on the pricing.. its a good foundation for real-life negotiation practices.

• by balbaugh on 4/14/11, 12:30 AM

  Signing up for a mediation course through your local legal system would offer you both hands on experience and a chance to build a lucrative side business as a mediator. It would take some time and effort but with the overburdened dockets most judges are dealing with the push for pre trial mediation is growing as is the need for mediators.

• by anubhavgupta89 on 4/14/11, 12:15 AM

  Theres a book i read 'What they dont teach you at harvard" heres the link http://www.amazon.com/What-Teach-Harvard-Business-School/dp/... Read this one for sure...its like a negotiation and deal making manual

• by siculars on 4/13/11, 11:21 PM

  Go to a bar or other public venue. Pick up chicks. Or guys. Whatever gets you going. Rinse, repeat.

• by jchonphoenix on 4/13/11, 11:11 PM

  Actually this is kind of mean and will probably be downvoted, but the way I found best to practice negotiations were in job offers.

  Over the last year, I racked up job offers and had to negotiate them, which gave me practice and made me realize I had room to improve.

• by rabidonrails on 4/14/11, 1:30 AM

  Negotiation Genius - best book out there and a good read.

  http://www.amazon.com/Negotiation-Genius-Obstacles-Brilliant...

• by joeld42 on 4/14/11, 12:27 AM

  Go to a flea market and haggle. It's fun.

• by ssebro on 4/14/11, 12:24 AM

  Get a kid. Seriously.

• by WasabiVentures on 4/14/11, 8:48 PM

  get married... the entire institution is negotiation.