Negotiation, they say, is an art and not a science. But that doesn’t mean it’s free-form or unstructured. An expert negotiator, like any great artist, needs to bring some very specific skills to the job—and must know how to use those skills to maximum effect.

Of course, the skills required to be a successful negotiator depend, in part, on the type of negotiation you are undertaking. Negotiations aimed at cutting a business deal are different from negotiations aimed at settling a dispute, and each type of bargaining requires a somewhat different skill set. Similarly, you would employ different skills in a distributive negotiation—a zero-sum, highly competitive type of bargaining that produces winners and losers—than you would in an integrative negotiation, which seeks a win-win outcome that creates value for both sides.

Still, there are a few core skills that are fundamental to any type of negotiation. Taking the time to acquire and hone these six skills will put you on the path to becoming an expert negotiator:

• Planning: Successful negotiations don’t just happen; they are the result of painstaking planning and research. Before you ever sit down at the bargaining table, you need to have a thorough understanding of all the issues at hand. And you need to have a clear sense not only of your own goals, but also the goals of the person across the table from you.
• Understanding BATNA: Very often, the key to a successful negotiation is knowing when (or whether) it makes sense to walk away from the table without making a deal. Understanding your BATNA—your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, a term coined by Roger Fisher and William Ury in their 1981 bestseller, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In—is the essential foundation of your negotiating strategy. Your BATNA essentially tells you what offers you can accept and what offers you can’t accept. And understanding the other party’s BATNA tells you where you might be able to find common ground, leading to an offer that will be acceptable to both sides.
• Active listening: Too often, the parties to a negotiation do a whole lot of talking but not enough listening. It’s understandable: once you’ve said your piece, the temptation is to think through what you’ll say next or how you will tweak your strategy to meet the current situation. But it’s a better idea to listen to what the other party is telling you, paying attention both to what they say and what they don’t say. Practice active listening, which is a fancy way of saying that you should try really hard to understand the meaning and motives behind what the other person is saying. The better listener you are, the more you will learn about what the other party wants—or may be willing to accept.
• Asking good questions: In negotiations, knowledge is power—and the best way to gain more knowledge is by asking questions. Yet many negotiators don’t bother to play the Q&A game, preferring instead simply to argue or defend their own positions. That’s a mistake: asking good questions is the first step in establishing a meaningful dialogue with the other party. Edward Miles, a professor at Georgia State University, has written extensively on how to develop a strategy for asking meaningful questions during negotiations. A key pointer: avoid Yes/No questions and rhetorical questions, and instead ask neutral questions that encourage detailed responses.
• Building rapport: Establishing a personal bond with your negotiating counterpart can help you avoid an adversarial tone and make it easier to find common ground as the negotiation progresses. Start your meeting with some small talk or, if you’re planning to negotiate by email, make a brief introductory phone call to provide a moment of human contact. Be respectful and engaged when you’re speaking to the other party, and practice active listening when your counterpart is doing the talking.
• Creativity: The most successful negotiators are those who instinctively think outside the box, always looking for creative ways to get the deal done. There’s typically lots of room for creativity in integrative negotiations, which involve multiple issues that provide a chance for meaningful tradeoffs (I’ll give you what you want on Issue A if you’ll give me what I want on Issue B). But even in a seemingly straightforward distributive negotiation where the two sides are just haggling over price, there may still be a chance for a creative solution. If, for instance, the other party doesn’t want to meet your price, you might still find agreement by structuring the deal differently—extending the payment terms, perhaps, or offering seller financing. If you’re willing to think creatively, you’re likely to find yourself making more and better deals down the road.

To learn more about MindEdge’s Certificate in Negotiation, click here.