“How To Project Value To Win More Negotiations”
The projection of value in a negotiation and how well you do so is directly related to whether you’ll win or lose the negotiation. To win more negotiations, be laser focused on how you project the value that’s in your offerings. Observe the following when doing so.
- To project value in a negotiation, you have to know what value looks like to the opposing negotiator. When seeking her insights per why she’s asking for whatever she requests, you can ask:
- Is that really important to you?
- Why is it important?
- If we can’t agree on this, what might be a good substitute?
Don’t pass off lightly the value that can be gleaned from the insight which comes from posing such questions. Someone can say they want a car and upon further probing you discover they want a form of transportation. That form can be addressed by offering a motorbike, car service, etc. If you became fixated on their request for a car, you might offer a Mercedes, thinking you were offering them the value they were seeking. If the person was one once prone to thinking such was ostentatious, you’d be detracting from your attempts to project value by having your personage perceived as someone that’s out of touch with the opposing negotiator’s perspective of value.
- Be Mindful of Labels. When considering how you’ll project value, consider the label you’ll place on your offerings. Reflect upon:
- What’s her real source of motivation per what she’s seeking and how can I label it to convey more perceived value? You can gain insight to this question by listening to the words she uses to represent her thoughts. Word choice gives you a peek into someone’s mental thought process because it reflects the thought process per how someone feels about a particular entity. Remember, a diamond has more perceived value than a stone, although the diamond can be concealed in a stone. Thus, if you want to extend an offer, as an example, you might say, I’ll give you a diamond versus, I’ll give you a stone.
- Consider what obtaining your offer will do for the other negotiator per her value proposition (i.e. how she values something). That means you really have to understand how she thinks. You can do so by asking yourself:
- How will possessing my offer make her feel?
- Does she want to appear [position herself] to look a certain way to a particular person/group? Does such convey status that she’s seeking and if so, why is that important to her?
- Speak in terms that will allow her to experience the outcome she seeks, if you were to grant her the request(s) she’s asking of you.
To become more adept at negotiations, you must understand the other negotiator’s perspective of value. In addition, you must be very mindful of how you project the perception of value. Once you master this aspect of negotiations, you’ll enhance your negotiation abilities, which will lead to more winning negotiations for you… and everything will be right with the world.
Remember, you’re always negotiating!