Real Life Negotiations

The majority of people tend to relate negotiating to business transactions & meetings, with their associated wheeling’s and dealings. However, this is only one type of negotiation that occurs regularly. We all tend to do more negotiating in real life than you may think.

Let’s look at some real life negotiation examples in more detail…..

You may want to rent an apartment over a holiday period. Are you going to settle for the first price you are given? Probably not. You want to get a good deal so you are going to talk with the owner several times in the hope of getting a better deal!

Some of the things you might discuss in person or via email include:

• Your length of stay – you can offer to stay longer (if the price is right).
  Benefit to the owner – knowing they have a confirmed booking.
• You offer to clean the apartment (or the windows, etc) – in exchange for a lower price.
  Benefit to the owner – saves them time and money from doing it themselves or having to hire another person.

Do you know that you also negotiate with yourself quite often?

How many times have you caught yourself questioning if you should eat that ice cream cone,  or if you should eat dessert? Other frequent questions include buying new clothes or should you upgrade to the latest iPhone? Each time you ask yourself a question like this, you are negotiating. You are trying to find a logical or satisfactory reason as to why you should act in this particular way.

Many of these self negotiations can be viewed as an inner war. You want to give in to the temptation or choice and yet you struggle to find ways to make it seem legitimate. You are finding a way to negotiate with yourself so that you won’t feel guilty about having made a particular choice.

The same applies to paying for work that has been done by a contractor. If they missed their deadline or you weren’t completely happy, should you ask for a lower price? You start negotiating with the company and use these reasons as your ‘why’ for the price to be lowered.

Then there are those personal “Conversations” we have with friends or family. Such as

• Your significant other wants to go out for dinner, as do you. However, you want to try that new place down the road & they want to go back to that place you ate at last week – let the negotiations begin!
• Your brother needs your help with some yard work & you have agreed to help. Thing is, he wants you to help this Saturday & you’re already committed to another undertaking at that time.
• Anyone with teenage children understands that life is a negotiation (some would say a constant battle)! Whether it’s about what they want to do or what you want them to do, you need to negotiate an agreement otherwise the relationship ends up in the toilet & life at home becomes a nightmare!

So the next time you feel that inner war brewing inside of you. Remember that this is just your natural negotiation instincts rearing their head. Treat it just like any other negotiation and make the best deal possible – just remember that, with personal negotiations, the impact on the relationship is usually far more important than the actual deal struck on the day.