The Program on Negotiation
at Harvard Law School

Dear Negotiator:

Yes, you.

You may think of yourself as an executive, a manager, a director of this or that, but believe me: You are a negotiator.

From where to eat lunch to where to relocate offices, you negotiate something every hour of the day.

So, here’s my question: How’s it going?

Do you get what you want? Or fall short? And ...

How would you like to do better ... the expert way?

Introducing Negotiation Briefings, from the celebrated Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

It looks like a newsletter. It reads like a newsletter. But what it really is, is a monthly tool for success.

For business achievement. For life satisfaction. For getting more of what you want ... without giving in.

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School has pioneered a new way of “getting to yes” where all can win ... where the pie is big enough for everyone to have a piece.

Except that, when you follow Harvard’s advice ...

... you often walk away with the biggest piece.

Here’s what I mean.

Old-style, tough-guy negotiators often figure they get a better deal by disparaging what’s on offer – “What, me pay $20,000 for that ratty old thing?” But researchers found that simply saying, “I can’t afford $20,000” resulted in counter-offers that were 7% more attractive.

Score: Tough guys 0, good guys 1.

Want another tough-guys-lose example? Look no further than the state of Illinois, where tough-guy governor Bruce Rauner and some equally stiff-necked legislators tied the budget in knots for two years, imperiling paychecks and pensions for thousands.

When members of his own party finally stood up to Rauner, the governor had achieved none of his stated goals – due to a toxic win-lose mindset and a failure (on both sides) to anticipate fallout from a long-term impasse.

Stories like this, from the pages of Negotiation Briefings, help you thread your way through tricky, high-stakes encounters where you might well feel overmatched.

Take bullies. Suppose one tries to threaten you into a bad deal. That’s what the Miami Marlins did, threatening to leave town unless taxpayers paid for a new stadium. Local government folded like a rag doll, shouldering 75% of construction costs while letting the Marlins keep most of the revenues.

The tough guys won this one. Wonder if things would’ve been different had government negotiators done as the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School advises and not believed the threats. Bullies often bluff. Face them down – by figuring out the worst-case scenario and fortifying yourself with a strong backup plan. Then bargain your brains out, knowing you have alternatives.

But I hear you saying, “That wasn’t a fair fight. Bureaucrats are no match for business sharpies.” Oh, really? Then explain why one of the highest-stakes negotiations in recent years, involving two of the (supposedly) sharpest people in the entertainment business, fell apart due to a basic bonehead blunder.

Take a look at a sample issue for the story of Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s hiring of superagent Michael Ovitz. After 14 months of internal war, Ovitz was fired – and walked away with $138 million in severance.

Score here: No good guys, no bad guys, just careless guys ... and a lot of angry stockholders. When you negotiate your next new job, heed this lesson from the Eisner-Ovitz fiasco: Set yourself up for success by negotiating your role before you take the job.

Negotiation Briefings’ benefits go on and on:

• The simple perk that your employees will prefer over a higher salary
• Ways to tell when the other side is lying (and 12 strategies for warding off lies)
• How women (and men, too!) can overcome people’s biased expectations
• Methods to encourage people into better behavior (these insights led to the Nobel Prize in economics)
• Five Warren Buffett secrets for building strong negotiating partnerships
• How the lack of a single comma cost an employer in court
• Best ways to request a favor
• Amazon’s technique to shut out other potential bidders in the Whole Foods acquisition
• 3 tips for stronger first offers
• AND MORE!

These are just a few of the great tips, tactics, and techniques from recent issues of Negotiation Briefings.

And you’ll get ideas. For instance: You may never negotiate a book contract, but when you read how Washington legal eagle Robert Barnett won the Obamas a staggering $65 million for him-and-her books, it may get your juices flowing.

Still on the fence about subscribing? Read the sample issue, a compilation of some of the most interesting, useful stories culled from our pages.

Then subscribe at the special rate for readers of this letter: $147, less than half the regular price ($299.00). You save $152.00 – no small sum – plus get these three bonuses absolutely FREE:

1. The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World, an audio recording with Harvard Business School Prof. Michael Wheeler. Discover:

2. Mastering Business Negotiation. Having the facts on your side just isn’t enough. People are irrational! But you can employ simple strategies with even the most difficult people so that your plans will carry the day. Find out how in Mastering Business Negotiation.

3. What People REALLY Want: 5 Secrets to Successful Negotiating, an audio recording with Harvard Prof. Daniel Shapiro. Dr. Shapiro shares his powerful, 5-point framework, which exposes key human motivations driving negotiations. Don’t mistake this for a course on emotional intelligence. These techniques have been shown to improve outcomes in countless business and government negotiations.

Subscribe to Negotiation Briefings now. The risk is on us. If at any time we fail to live up to our promises, simply cancel for a FULL REFUND – every penny promptly returned. Those three FREE bonuses? They’re yours to keep, along with any issues received to date.

But I’m betting you’ll stick with us for years, as a staggering percentage of our subscribers do. At some point, possibly soon, you’ll face a make-or-break negotiation. When that day comes, you’ll be glad to have a powerful friend on your side.

Sincerely,

Phillip A. Ash, Publisher
For the faculty and staff of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

P.S. A while back, I asked a few simple-sounding questions. Do you get what you want? Or fall short? And how would you like to do better ... the expert way? These are questions only you can answer, of course. So I’ll just end this letter by quoting something I often hear at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard:

“Negotiation is not a talent you are born with. It’s a skill you can learn.”

Are you ready to start learning? Then subscribe now.