Discover the Power
Of Better Negotiating

Negotiation is one skill everyone needs in order to get more of what they want — to sell more, to keep costs down, to manage better, to strengthen relationships — to win! Thomas shows you exactly how the best negotiators reach long-lasting positive solutions that build profits, performance, and relationships.

This indispensable guide covers all you'll ever need to know about negotiating, including:

• The 21 rules of successful negotiating — and how to defend against them!
• "Quickies" — specific tips on how to successfully negotiate with bosses, children, car dealers, contractors, auto mechanics, and many others
• Why Americans are among the worst negotiators on Earth
• How to overcome your natural reluctance to bargain
• Why win-win negotiating is so vital
• How to thoroughly prepare for your negotiations
• How to deal with counterparts who intimidate or harass you
• How to negotiate ethically — and deal with those who don't
• How to negotiate more successfully across cultural lines
• Thomas's Truisms — 50 memorable negotiating maxims
• The psychology of negotiating, historical illustrations, day-to-day applications, and much, much more!

We are all going to die. Aside from that, it's negotiable.

Among animals, only humans negotiate. We negotiate unceasingly, from our first cry to our last breath. We dicker with bosses, subordinates, colleagues, customers, vendors, parents, spouses, children, merchants, laborers, craftspeople, bureaucrats, policemen, lovers, friends, and enemies. We haggle with individuals and groups, at home and at work, day and night, rain and shine. Negotiating is part of practically every human activity. Any time two or more of us confer for agreement—about anything—we could be negotiating.

If you think a lot of haggling is going on now, just wait. Society is being hammered by revolutionary social, political, and economic changes that will sharply raise the stakes on skillful negotiating. New economic realities. It's not just your imagination-things really are getting tougher. It's harder than ever to manage a business, make a profit, raise a child, balance a family budget, or run a government. And the tougher things get, the more important good negotiating becomes.

As I write this, the average net after-tax profit margin of S&P 500 companies is a razor-thin 4%. 4%! Margins of10 to 20% and more used to be typical; only grocery chains and a few other high-volume businesses had 4% margins. Yes, in some years margins will get better. And in others, they'll get worse. They constantly fluctuate with economic cycles. But, on average, they've been steadily shrinking for the past half-century. I'm no economist, but this looks like a trend to me.

What happens when the sellers and buyers in a company with a 4% net after-tax margin start negotiating 1% better? Just 1%? That 1% drops straight to the bottom line—increasing profit by 25%! Imagine the effect on the price of that company's stock.

Scarcity is the mother of better bargaining. When times are good and margins are fat, you can get away with a little sloppy negotiating now and then. When margins are 4%, you can't. The economic landscape has changed, probably forever. We share a future of constrained resources—of 4% margins—in which ever-smaller advantages will determine who succeeds and who doesn't; a future in which better negotiating can make all the difference.

New globalism. The doors to the Mother of All Bazaars are open. Electronically exchanged information and capital are quickly making international borders irrelevant. We are all citizens of—and competitors in—a wired, global state.

An obvious consequence of our connected world is a huge upsurge in transactions between individuals and organizations with vastly different cultural backgrounds. Westerners just entering the international marketplace are often shocked to discover that the rest of the world negotiates like crazy! New globalism requires successful negotiators to quickly adapt to the ways of other cultures. Chapter 10,International Negotiating examines these issues and highlights some of the shortcomings of the traditional American "one size fits all" approach to cross-cultural negotiating.

New management and work styles. Today's organizations are smaller, flatter, faster, and increasingly dependent upon capable negotiating. Corporate pyramids topped by shouting, imperial bosses have been replaced by unstructured, collaborative enterprises. Today's employees, more self-interested and nomadic than their careerist forebears, have little tolerance for dictatorial treatment. Good "office negotiation" skills have become almost indispensable to managerial success.

The rapid growth of strategic alliances between companies has been another boon to bargaining.

JIM THOMAS is a Washington, D.C., negotiator, attorney, business owner, speaker, and author. He has been a world-class negotiator for over 25 years. His work includes mergers and acquisitions, arms control, labor relations, trade and diplomacy, domestic and international business, the environment, real estate, and a host of other fields. His talks and seminars on negotiation have been enthusiastically received by tens of thousands in the United States and abroad. His client list includes most of the Fortune 500 and many prominent nonprofit groups, professional and trade associations, and federal, state, and local government agencies. He is the founder and CEO of Common Ground Seminars and a graduate of UCLA and Georgetown University Law Center. Jim lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and is the father of two children.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

• Contact Us |
• Site Help |
• Site Map |
• Privacy Statement |
• Support KCLS |
• KCLS Employment