Sales professionals always find negotiations and bartering a thrilling experience. When you, as the sales professional, try selling airtime, it is all about abundant negotiations. Being an expert of mitigations is highly essential for everyone in daily activities of a business. After being in the market of making deals with clients for years, neither I nor you can help but become an expert of mitigation. I learned, and so will you, that everything is negotiable. There are some necessities for every negotiation.

1. Devising and investigation: Research and study are two clauses which you can’t substitute for anything else when delving into mitigation. Regardless of your considerations about yourself being a good or an average negotiator, you have to study your objectives, the best case scenarios and the worst ones too. You have to be ready to handle any and every outcome of the negotiation. Having information is the key which lets you know the other party’s objectives, urgencies, weaknesses, options and everything else. You have to use the opponent’s weaknesses as your strengths.

2. Relationship establishment: Before going further towards the negotiations, you have to try and establish a relationship with the other party. It is the skills of your people that make all the difference. You have to understand the individual on the opposite side while being receptive and understandable. The reception and responsiveness in your behavior are what lays the foundation for a profitable discussion. It is essential for the other party to think of you as a sincere person, who is forthright, approachable and behaves with integrity. After establishing that the negotiation becomes productive and moves to your favorable direction.

3. Receiving as per mitigations: A successful and tactful negotiator sets up the bar high enough to create a valued insight into the perception of the other party. To put things simply, you, as a seller, have to ask for more than you expect. Most buyers will want to pay as less as possible, and so, if you keep a high price, the negotiated deal will find a middle ground instead of a ditch. This final price will be good for both you and the buyer. However, the golden rule states that you should never bargain yourself down before sitting down at the table. You will never get what you ask for but only what you can negotiate.

4. Two winners: As the negotiator, it is understandable that you wish to win, but you also have to keep the interests of the other party in mind. If you limit your thinking to win and lose, you lose creativity. Ingenuity is crucial for a successful negotiation, and you have to understand what either party needs to reach an outcome that satisfies both the participants. You ensure your victory when you arrive at a win-win situation.

5. Don’t lose patience: Patience is one of the chief virtues for everything that you do in this world, and it is crucial for a negotiation. There isn’t much difference between mitigating and baking a cake. The cake will not bake faster if you turn up the heat. It will only burn off, so being calm and composes during a negotiation lets you asses the opportunities with objectivity. Begin with a few points of disagreement that you can address quickly without negotiating much. After that, you can shift toward more substantial issues. Try to hold on to a few things that you can give up after reaching an advantageous position. There is no room for emotion in a business deal, so you have to restrain yourself. Those who can pause for the most extended amount of time will win the negotiation.

Successful negotiation is the best way to achieve the goals of your business. You should never take anything personally during the negotiation and leave your personalities out of the discussion. If you can do that, you will notice opportunities with better impartiality.

Author's Bio: 

Gautam Sharma - MD Big Bang Sports & Entertainment, Chairman Professional Boxing Organization India & Former Vice President & National Sales Head ABP News Network (formely Star News). Gautam Sharma has two decades of experience in media and advertising sales, revenue optimization and managing turnarounds for leading media organizations. He is currently an entrepreneur.