What are the five stages of the negotiation process?
What are the five stages of the negotiation process?
Negotiation is a core skill for many roles. It’s not limited to procurement professionals, but it is just as relevant in sales and human resources, particularly for people working in management and leadership positions. Colin Linton’s SPEED® negotiation process, aims to set out the structure you need for a seamless negotiation process in five simple stages. How quickly you navigate through each stage depends entirely on how important you negotiation is.
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.
Even if the negotiation process proves unsuccessful with the other party, always remember to thank them for their time and lave on a positive note. This will make sure your reputation stays intact and leaves the door open for potential opportunities in the future.
Colin Linton/Gidea Solutions Limited, 2020. All rights reserved. SPEED® is a registered trademark and is owned by Gidea Solutions Limited.
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