There are words in negotiations that we should not avoid. I’m not talking about industry returns, i.e. mark-up, margin, price, profit or profitability of the contract. I mean, ordinary, everyday, important words like: THANK YOU, I’M SORRY, but also YES, NO, MAYBE.

• NO

If we hear NO, we are not done with the negotiations. On the contrary…

– we are trying to find out why NOT

„We’re trying to convince the other side

– we try to change NO to CAN, and then to YES

• PERHAPS

This MAYBE is the worst, because it doesn’t have the emotional dimension of NO.

MAYBE it’s flat, colorless, suspended in a vacuum, but it gives hope, so we keep fighting…

• YES

So why isn’t YES really good either?

Well, if we hear YES immediately after our proposal, it means that we have anchored too low…

• EXCUSE ME

I apologize for negotiating:

-> Anyone who was late for a meeting absolutely APOLOGIZES.

-> SORRY if, for example, we work from home and in the background we can hear a renovation at the neighbor’s house or a break at a nearby school and the moment when „the children happily ran out of school”

-> I’m sorry if I didn’t hear anything and please repeat it.

-> I’m SORRY if I didn’t understand something and please explain.

-> I’M SORRY when I have to interrupt someone.

(as a general rule, we don’t interrupt and wait for someone to finish speaking, but there are situations when we should/need to react immediately)

Remark! Moderation should be shown when apologizing. Let us not go overboard.

• THANK YOU

At the beginning of the meeting, we THANK our negotiating partners for showing up (also online). If someone doesn’t turn on the camera, please turn it on and immediately THANK YOU for doing so. When we don’t understand something, we ask and THANK YOU for explaining it to us. If we ask a lot of questions (we have the right to do so!), THANK YOU for the patience of the other party and for the answers. If there is a concession, we THANK the other party for it. THANK YOU also for meeting us as we say goodbye. In the minutes, we start with a THANK YOU for the meeting. And we end it with a THANK YOU in advance for the feedback.

Source: https://poradniknegocjatora.pl/wazne-slowa/

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.