The 11 Commandments

of Negotiations

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

used by permission of Huthwaite International
2013 Huthwaite International 2013 Huthwaite Inc.
All rights reserved
These copyrighted materials may not be reproduced, publicly displayed, or used
to create derivative products in any form without prior written permission from:
United States
(Global Headquarters)
901 North Glebe Road
Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22203
P: 703 467 3800
F: 703 467 3801

Australia Sydney
Level 7, 120 Sussex Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
P: 1300 856 068
F: +61 2 8437 7699

Australia Melbourne
Level 7, 11 Queens Road
Melbourne VIC 3004
Australia
P: +61 3 8842 2440
F: +61 3 8842 2444

Singapore
111 Somerset Road
#10-06 TripleOne Somerset
Singapore 238164
P: +65 6505 9470
F: +65 6505 9490

www.huthwaite.com

Hong Kong
Suite 1701, 100QRC
100 Queens Road Central
Hong Kong
P: +852 2234 2066
F: +852 2521 2836

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

The 11 Commandments
ofNegotiations
Huthwaites research into what skilled commercial negotiators actually do the worlds largest
body of data on the subject uncovered some startling insights, many of which demolish myths
and challenge traditional ideas about how the skilled negotiator thinks and behaves compared to
the average negotiator. As a high-level overview, we have distilled some of the major findings into
this document The 11 Commandments of Negotiations (For more information about Huthwaites
negotiations research, see the appendix at the end of this document).

1st Commandment: Sell first, and then negotiate

(but only if you have to)
If you can sell your buyer an unchanged solution at the full quoted price, why negotiate? However,
this is rare in major business contracts. Usually the buyer will signal the start of negotiations by
saying something like, Id like to do business with you if . Average negotiators will already have
given things away to achieve this position; the skilled will not.
Keep The Buying Cycle (below) in mind when the buyer begins to make overtures to negotiate.
Ask yourself, where this opportunity is in The Buying Cycle? If it is still in Evaluation of Options or
Recognition of Needs it is too early to negotiate. There is selling still to be done. Skilled negotiators
are aware of when it is time to sell vs. time to negotiate. Average negotiators will often blend the
two areas, in many cases under the mistaken belief that they are being customer focused.

Decision

CONFIDENTIAL

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

2nd Commandment: Never concede, always trade

Effective negotiation involves movement by both parties towards an outcome. Avoid giving
something without getting something in return. When you need to move from any stated position,
make a conditional offer, such as I might be able to move on X, if you are prepared to move on
Y. This is particularly important towards the end. The sight of a deal can seduce the unwary into
unilateral concessions.

3rd Commandment: Win/Win is not 50:50

Were all encouraged to aim for a Win/Win outcome when negotiating. Concluding a negotiation
with one side feeling positive and the other feeling resentful is not the basis for a strong ongoing
relationship. However, there is a trap here that average negotiators frequently fall into. Win/Win
doesnt necessarily mean splitting the difference. Skilled negotiators are far more effective at
representing their organizations interests and achieving their targeted outcomes, while still
allowing the other party to feel that theyve achieved a satisfactory result.

4th Commandment: Power is in the head

In the majority of cases, sellers report feeling that power in a negotiation lies with the buyer.
Interestingly, in our discussions with professional purchasers they frequently report feeling the
opposite. They need the service being sold and can seldom afford the deal to fall through either.
So what does this lead us to conclude about where power actually resides in a negotiation? That
it is merely a perception. If you feel powerful, you are powerful and you will behave accordingly.
If you feel weak, the reverse applies. If power is about perceptions and feelings, you can manage
and control it. What can you do to increase your chances of feeling powerful? The diagram below
shows there are three elements:
Preparation and Planning: Going in to a negotiation having done adequate
preparation and planning gives you confidence and fluidity. Even if youre thrown
a curve ball, youll have enough depth in your plan to confidently and agilely shift
directions or use your power to guide it back.

Power

Strategics
and Tactics

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

Effective
Negotiation

Preparing
and Planning

Behaviors

CONFIDENTIAL

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

Strategies and Tactics: Knowing how to maintain a positive climate or use a particular
tactic, such as Feelings Commentary, can un-stall a negotiation or get the other
party to reveal critical information.
Face-to-face Skills: Those who produce better results are aware of their behaviors,
and chose them consciously.

5th Commandment: Prepare and plan with great care

True or False: Skilled negotiators spend more time preparing and planning for a negotiation than
average negotiators?
If you answered false, you would be correct.
Our research into successful vs. average negotiators found no difference in the amount of time
each spent planning. It is not the amount of time that suggests success, but how that time is used.
Skilled negotiators do a number of things before a negotiation. Here are three of them:
They develop a credible fall back or BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated
Agreement). This is not the worst case they will accept; rather, it describes what they
will do if this particular negotiation fails entirely. A good fall back stops them feeling
that they must do a deal at all costs.
A skilled negotiator develops a wider range of options and outcomes than the
average negotiator. They identify as many negotiable issues as possible, prioritize
them and develop a negotiating range for each from best through target to worst.
They also calculate the cost of any concessions for each situation to avoid impulsive
and expensive mistakes in the heat of battle.
Does the skilled negotiator concentrate during planning on the areas that hold the
most potential for conflict or give attention to areas of possible common ground?
Huthwaites research showed that although both groups of negotiators tended to
focus on areas of conflict, the skilled negotiators gave over three times as much
attention to common ground areas as did average negotiators.

6
5

60
50

5.1

40

30

38%
2.6

20

10

0
Skilled

Average

Average number of outcomes planned

(per negotiable issue).

CONFIDENTIAL

11%
Skilled

Average

Average percentage of comments about

areas of common ground (during planning).

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

6th Commandment: Plan and ask questions

Huthwaites research into successful selling found that, on average, the more successful sellers
asked more and better questions during a meeting with the buyer than average sellers. Similarly
with negotiations, skilled negotiators asked significantly more questions during negotiations than
average negotiators. This is a significant difference in behavior. SPIN questions, in particular,
applied in the context of negotiations, are extremely effective for a variety of reasons, as they:
provide data about the other partys thinking and position;
give control over the discussion;
are more acceptable alternatives to direct disagreement;.
keep the other party active and reduce their thinking time; and
can give negotiators breathing space and time to gather their own thoughts.
Skilled negotiators prepare smart questions to probe the other sides stance. Their objective is to
create doubt in the validity of that stance the first step in persuasion. Problem and Implication
Questions are particularly powerful here. They help the other side explore and discuss alternatives
through Need-payoff Questions. They accomplish the second step creating movement by
offering Benefit statements, flexible trades and using their levers.

Questions as a percentage
of the negotiators overall
behavior.

25
20

21.3

15
10
9.6
5
0

Skilled

Average

7th Commandment: Identify and use your levers

A lever is a negotiable issue that is of relatively low importance to you, but is likely to be of
high importance to the other side. It is something that costs you less than the value the other
party places upon it. It can, therefore, be traded for something you value. Comparing the priorities
during planning yours and theirs on each negotiable issue identifies those levers.
Linking issues and obeying the Second Commandment makes sure that you use them.

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

CONFIDENTIAL

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

8th Commandment: Focus on your most important reasons

True or False: Skilled negotiators use more arguments to persuade the other party than do the average?
The answer is false. The research found that successful negotiators used fewer reasons to back
their argument than average negotiators. This seems counter-intuitive. How could that be? Its
because of a phenomenon called argument dilution. That is, the more reasons you give the
weaker your case becomes. Why? Weaker reasons dilute the most powerful ones. If a negotiator
gives five reasons to back a position and the third is weak, the other party will exploit this reason in
their response. The poorest reason is a lowest common denominator: a weak argument generally
dilutes a strong one. Be careful when planning that you dont fall into the trap of trying to present
a multitude of reasons for a particular position. You may be unknowingly weakening your case.

3.5
3

3.0

2.5

Average number of reasons

given to back an argument.

2
1.5

1.8

1
0.5
0

Skilled

Average

9th Commandment: Dont just cut the pie, grow it

A good deal is a creative deal. It adds value to whatever the two parties bring to the table. Ideally,
that additional value is created at the expense of a third party; for example, the competition or the
tax man! When planning, skilled negotiators generate a wide range of options when considering
how each negotiable issue might be settled. They look outside the deal for extra value.

10th Commandment: Keep all the balls in the air until the end
True or False: Skilled negotiators work to get items agreed on and finalized one-by-one?
Again, the answer is false. However tempting, avoid settling issues as you go, especially those that
seem minor. The risk is that you will discard your levers and the negotiation will come down to a
single-issue confrontation (typically, on price) with no other issues available to break the deadlock.
You need to be able to juggle all the issues so that you can bring any of them back into play at any
time until the whole deal is concluded. Until the end, settle issues provisionally.
Of course, as in any good set of 10 Commandments, there is an 11th

CONFIDENTIAL

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

11th Commandment: No deal is better than a bad deal

Obvious isnt it? But not so obvious when the deal has been in the sales forecast for months;
it seems tantalizingly close and all thats required to close it are a few final concessions. Because
they are clear about their worst position and have a credible fall back, skilled negotiators
recognize a bad deal and arent afraid to walk away from it.

Summary
Our research shows that the stereotypical image of the effective negotiator as a hard-faced and
intractable character is incorrect.
Skilled negotiators have wide behavioral repertoires and the flexibility to match their behavior
to suit the situation. Developing these skills is a key element in your ability to create Win/Win
outcomes and close more opportunities while maintaining acceptable margins.

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

CONFIDENTIAL

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

Appendix

Huthwaites negotiations research

We are not gurus or theorists. Huthwaites methodology is based on a series of discoveries, not
inventions, extracted from the largest body of directly observed research into real negotiations. In
comparison, almost all the publications about negotiating behavior fall into one of three classes:
1. Anecdotal Heres how I do it accounts by successful negotiators. These have the
advantage of being based on real life, but the disadvantage of frequently describing highly
personal modes of behavior that are a risky guide for would-be negotiators to follow.
2. Theoretical models of negotiating that are idealized, complex and seldom translatable
into practical action.
3. Laboratory studies, which tend to be short-term and contain a degree of artificiality.
Few studies have investigated what actually goes on during a face-to-face negotiation. Two
reasons account for this lack of published research.
1. Real negotiators are understandably reluctant to let a researcher watch them at work. Such
research requires the consent of both negotiating parties and constitutes a constraint on
a delicate situation.
2. A lack of methodology until recently there were few techniques available that allowed
an observer to collect data on the behavior of negotiators without the use of cumbersome
and unacceptable methods such as questionnaires.
Over the past 20 years a number of long-term studies using behavior analysis methods have been
carried out by members of the Huthwaite organization. These have allowed direct observation
during real negotiations, so that an objective and quantified record can be collected to show how
the skilled negotiator behaves.

The successful negotiator

The basic methodology for studying negotiating behavior is simple find some successful
negotiators and watch them to discover how they do it. But what is the criteria for a successful
negotiator? The Huthwaite studies used three success criterion:

A. They should be rated as effective by both sides.

This criterion enabled the researchers to identify likely candidates for further study. The condition
that both sides should agree on a negotiators effectiveness was a precaution to prevent picking a
sample from a single frame of reference.

B. They should have a track record of significant success.

The central criterion for choosing effective negotiators was a track record over time. In such a
complex field, the researchers were anxious for evidence of consistency. They also wished to
avoid the common trap of laboratory studies looking only at the short-term consequences of a
negotiators behavior and therefore favoring those using tricks or deceptions.

CONFIDENTIAL

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

The 11 Commandments of Negotiations

C. They should have a low incidence of implementation failures.

The researchers judged that the purpose of a negotiation was not just to reach an agreement,
but to reach a viable one. Therefore, in addition to a track record of agreements, the record of
implementation was also studied to ensure that any agreements were successfully implemented.
As part of this study, 103 separate negotiations that met this criteria were observed and
documented. They fell into three categories of negotiation:
labor relations (union and management);
contract negotiators; and
others.
In this document, these people were called the skilled group. In comparison, we also studied a
group of negotiators who either failed to meet all the criteria or about whom no criteria data was
available. These people were called the average group. By comparing the behavior of the two
groups, it was possible to isolate the crucial behaviors that made the skilled negotiators different.

10

2013 Huthwaite, Inc.

CONFIDENTIAL

Huthwaite is the worlds leading sales

performance improvement organisation.
Founded on scientifically validated behavioral
research, our methodologies which include
the internationally renowned SPIN Selling,
guarantee sales success. Huthwaite assesses
your organisations needs and develops
customised sales performance improvement
and coaching programs that drive real
business results.

United States (Headquarters)

901 North Glebe Road Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22203
P: 703 467 3800
F: 703 467 3801

Australia Sydney
Level 7, 120 Sussex Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
P: 1300 856 068
F: +61 2 8437 7699

Australia Melbourne
Level 7, 11 Queens Road
Melbourne VIC 3004
Australia
P: +61 3 8842 2440
F: +61 3 8842 2444

www.huthwaite.com

Singapore
111 Somerset Road
#10-06 TripleOne Somerset
Singapore 238164
P: +65 6505 9470
F: +65 6505 9490