Listening Skills & Negotiations

If you are to become a good negotiator then listening is a skill you absolutely must develop, because if you have poor listening skills you will also have poor negotiating skills.

Whilst most people think that they have good listening skills, the only accurate way to assess this is to ask other people who you communicate with on a regular basis.

Ideally this is something that you should ask as many people as possible about, so that you can get a diverse range of feedback with which you can use to improve your listening skills for negotiations.

Don’t make the mistake of just asking yourself, because as I mentioned previously, if your listening skills are poor then your negotiation skills are also likely to be poor.

How To Listen During A Negotiation

Before you start to negotiate with someone you should have a good idea of the things you want to negotiate about. During your negotiations you should therefore listen carefully when these topics are discussed.

The idea is to get the most information possible when negotiating, because this information will allow you to change what negotiation techniques you use so that they are better suited to the type of person you are trying to negotiate with and the situation you are in.

The Valuable Piece Of Information

A good way to improve your listening skills during negotiations is to expect to find something of value in what the other person has to say. A certain key piece of information that will give you the advantage you need.

This might be something related to your business, a weakness you see in them or some area of similarity which you can use to create rapport.

This form of listening where you expect them to say something of value is one of the most powerful things you could do to improve your overall negotiation skills.

You will know if you are listening well because the negotiation process will flow smoothly and naturally from subject to subject.

If however your negotiations feel awkward or there are difficulties in communicating, then use that as a sign that you are not listening enough to the person you are trying to negotiate with.

Ask Questions

Listening involves more than just being quite and hearing what the other person is saying. Since any negotiation involves communication between two parties, you must therefore be able to ask the right questions to gather more information.

One key point to remember when asking questions is to make sure you get the answer you were looking for.

Some people will try to avoid answering the question, or give you a response which doesn’t really tell you anything. So if you don’t get the answer you want, keep asking questions until you do.

Summary

All good negotiators have excellent listening skills because this allows them to make an assessment of the person they are trying to negotiate with, and if needed, change their negotiation strategy.

Therefore if you want to be a good negotiator, it is vitally important that you work on developing and improving your listening skills as this is one of the best things you can do to improve your overall negotiating skills.