What are the five stages of the negotiation process?

Strategy:

This first stage is when the deep and broad thinking happens and understanding your internal strategies and drivers. This stage will often be quick to pass if you are negotiating low value/risk items It’s important to ask yourself:

• How important is the negotiation?
• How important is it to the other party?
• How many buyers and suppliers are there?
• How much power do you have in the market?

Planning:

Planning is fundamental to the process and only should begin after considering the deeper issues above. Here are a few tactical things to think about in the planning process:

• Where, when, and how are you going to do the negotiating?
• Who will be there representing the organisation?
• What tradeable do you have? What must you not trade away?
• What are your targets?
• What happens if you can’t reach an agreement?
• What are your most powerful persuasive arguments?
• What other tactics could you use?

Execution:

Execution: The execution stage will have a start, middle and end. Planning your opening statements and messages is vital as it’s very easy to say the wrong thing. You might want to have a general discussion to build up rapport and trust in the first instance. Make sure to execute based on your planning, however, if the planning proves to be invalid, take some time out to reconsider and revise. At the end, summarise and document the points of agreement and any next steps.

Evaluation:

Negotiation is about soft skills, so evaluate them and look for ways to improve. This is a good thing to put into practice as it will help with your self-development and improve your negotiations in the future. Consider what went well, what didn’t go well and where you could improve.

Delivery:

Delivering on promises is key to your professional integrity and making you establish and maintain relationships. Credibility builds through delivering on the promises made during the negotiation.