Negotiation and psychology intersect in negotiations. That's what this article is about... ways in which you can win more negotiations by being psychologically attuned to what's occurring during the negotiation and what tactics to employ related to those occurrences. Whether you are negotiating a big deal for wholesale merchandise or pricing with your customers at your store, it is important to know how to do it correctly!

Titles of events and environments shape perception, which leads to expectations; perception is nothing more than the psychological expectation someone has aroused in others about a particular situation.

In order to win more negotiations, you need to psychologically prepare the other negotiator's perception to insure he performs in the manner you proscribe for the negotiation.

Do you know who I am:

Everyone wants to be recognized as possessing value when they enter into a negotiation, they bring their ego into it. If you want to psychologically impress someone, speak to their ego. You can do so by verbally acknowledging the value they bring to the negotiation, and the worth of their suggestions and ideas. By giving such recognition, you display appreciation for their contribution, which should gain chits for you. Those chits can be used to further your agenda for the negotiation when used at the appropriate time for that purpose. Remember, if people think you don't care, in their mind, you don't!

Psychological Use of Social Proof:

In any negotiation, you should always have social proof (i.e. documentation that highlights what a majority of people think about a subject/topic). You can use it to heighten the perception and viability of your offer/counteroffer. By doing so, you give your offer a psychological boost in the mind of the other negotiator. The subliminal message that such a thought sends is, everybody else thinks this way. Why are you not thinking like this, too?

The caveat that you should consider is to what degree the other negotiator is a conformist versus a nonconformist. If he's a conformist, he'll be more psychologically disposed to be swayed by your social proof. If he is a nonconformist, he may have the opposite disposition.

Embrace Discourse:

Welcome discourse, but don't give your power away. To many times, people disempower themselves by acquiescing too soon, simply because they feel the other negotiator is too powerful. During stages of discourse, play a psychological game. Don't lose your cool, instead embrace discourse. Align your body language to display that you're attentive and lending the proper amount of attention sought by the other negotiator. If you display the demeanor and attentiveness, along with the level of empathy required, you will establish a psychological bridge upon which the other negotiator can use to meet your request. To insure your psychological success with this tactic, make sure that bridge is fortified with options to exit before reaching the end point, if there be a need to do so.

Think about what thoughts came to your mind when you read the title of this article? Where you intrigued? Whether you realized it or not, you subliminally started forming expectations and ideas as to what the content of the article contained.

In your negotiations, you can set the same psychological tone for the expectations to come, by utilizing some of the thoughts presented above. When you do so with adeptness, your ratio of winning negotiations will skyrocket... and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you're always negotiating!