Eighty to ninety percent of all startups are doomed to fail. While there are many reasons for this, one of the most important is that entrepreneurs don’t have the negotiation skills they will need. Founders must learn how to prevent, detect, and respond to potential negotiation mistakes throughout the life of their companies. Based on our many years of hands-on experience, plus our in-depth research, we have found that there are five important exercises that entrepreneurs can do to overcome a lack of formal negotiation training.
Listening
Purposeful, active listening can help to improve communication, making it easier to spot problems before they become unsolvable and identify value-creating opportunities. Active listening can be practiced at any time with a colleague.
You can also practice active listening during everyday interactions with family, colleagues at work, strangers at a public event, salespeople while shopping, and friends as they share their opinions.
You can also practice active listening during everyday interactions with family, colleagues at work, strangers at a public event, salespeople while shopping, and friends as they share their opinions.
Brainstorming and Creative Packaging
Effective brainstorming rests on two simple principles: no judgment and no attribution. When you add a ground rule like “nothing-is-agreed-until- everything-is-agreed” (which is crucial to building a winning agreement), you will become a much more effective problem-solver. Working on your brainstorming and “packaging” skills in a safe environment (with friends!) can help you gain the confidence you will need to handle higher stakes negotiations later on.
Perspective-Taking and Role-Playing
Perspective taking is another skill that can contribute to better negotiation outcomes. Try hard to put yourself in the other side’s place so you understand their interests and priorities. Pay attention, as well, to their emotional concerns. Being able to figuratively “Go to the Balcony” – view the situation from an impersonal perspective – when your own emotions are getting the better of you, will make it easier to focus on the problem you’re trying to solve, rather than on your reactions to the people involved. We recommend role-playing as a way to practice. Try rehearsing the other side’s lines; or, try putting yourself in the role of a mediator trying to assist you and someone with whom are going to have to negotiate.
If you are working on your own, take time to fill in a negotiation preparation worksheet for both yourself and, as best you can, for the other side. Then, try to write a description of the situation as if you were a neutral party invited to report on the proceedings. You may need help from a colleague to make sure you embody the other side realistically. When you can advocate the other party’s position as well as your own, then you are ready to negotiate. Make sure a colleague you tap for assistance presses you to explain your positions, interests, and mindset as clearly as possible.
In addition, broaden your repertoire. Experiment with different negotiation styles and using different negotiation moves. For example, try new opening moves. You may find something that’s much more comfortable for you. By practicing different ways of responding to the aggressive moves of others, you will learn to relax. All of these efforts will help you avoid the negotiation mistakes that entrepreneurs usually make.
Emotional Control and Difficult Conversations
There is a difference between thinking about emotions in theory, and actually experiencing them and their effects. To improve your emotional awareness and self-control, try keeping a journal in which you reflect (just for yourself) on the ways in which you handled emotional challenges in everyday situations. As you become more reflective, it will be easier to keep your emotions in check.
Continue to Improve
It is rare that a single mistake will sink you. By committing to continuous improvement, you should be able to make fewer negotiation mistakes and recover more quickly. A commitment to ongoing learning is easier when you pursue it with others. This could involve finding a negotiation coach, an experienced colleague, a group of peers, or someone from your own company who has more experience than you do. Enlist their help. It takes time to establish new negotiation habits, but once they are in place, it is not that hard to maintain them.
As an entrepreneur, you need to commit to improving your negotiation skills. The good news is that there are lots of simple steps you can make that will eventually bolster your negotiation capabilities.
