2 Minutes Business Article. Title: The Negotiator

I grew up a very bad negotiator! I would go to the market and buy things twice the price my mother or sisters would buy them. I eventually found out most men are very bad negotiators except the ones who were taught while growing up, the ones who learnt it in school by doing management courses like Accountancy, Economics, Business Administration etc., and the ones who learnt it the hard way like myself.

Women are better negotiators – although, there are some who are worst than men, maybe as a result of upbringing. I give the credit to my wife; she taught me how to negotiate. Today, once in a while, when I assist her with the groceries, she would tell me ‘wow, that was good, at least, you have stopped sharing free money.’ It gives me a good feeling about myself.

I have discovered that lack of effective negotiation skills makes people go from rich to poor, and make businesses go from big to small. I have also found out that most poor people don’t know how to negotiate, else, they would have gone from poor to rich. They spend even the little they have buying things at double the original prices.


A Major Mistake People Make In Negotiation

Negotiating to Win: Most times, negotiating to win is negotiating to lose. When your goal in negotiation is to win at the expense of the other person, you will eventually lose, because the person will find out sooner or later, especially if you are dealing with people who don’t have any idea about the business they do, maybe in a local market somewhere. So, you go to them to buy at very ridiculous prices and sell very high. When they eventually find out you are cheating them, they’ll shut the door and you’ll lose you customers, or you start buying at their new prices, and this will still make you lose customers too as people hate sudden increase in price.

He who wins alone doesn’t win for long and end up standing alone. That’s very bad for business as business thrives only when you build good win-win relationships. I have actually met a lot of people who don’t mind making very exuberant profits, even if it means staying out of business for a while after that sale. I find that very unwise!


Action Exercise: Improve on your negotiation skill today, negotiation is part of life.


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