April 26, 2019

Best books on negotiations?

Sent by Jonathan Stark on April 26th, 2019

When it comes to selling services, negotiating is something that happens in a very specific phase of the sales process. Namely, AFTER you have given a price and BEFORE the client accepts your price.

I don’t talk about negotiations all that much because my personal negotiating style is fairly straight forward. It’s been effective for me, but I’m not sure how useful it is in general use. It amounts to this:

Once I present a price in a proposal, I never negotiate the price. However:

Also:

At a high level, that’s really it. I know there are lots of other styles, but I have chosen to stick with what works for me. If it works for you, great! If not, here are few book recommendations:

Getting More by Stuart Diamond

https://www.amazon.com/Getting-More-Negotiate-Succeed-Work-ebook/dp/B003F3PKSQ/

I listened to this on audiobook and it absolutely blew my mind. It goes way way beyond simple sales negotiations but I still found it super useful.

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B014DUR7L2/

I haven’t read this yet (it’s on my bookshelf) but I love every video I’ve seen Chris do. Search “Chris Voss“ on YouTube and watch anything that comes up. He was a hostage negotiator for the FBI and worked at a suicide prevention hotline. That’s some serious street cred.

Start With No by Jim Camp

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003EY7JEE/ref=cmswemrmtdpU_8t7VCbCTMK3BY

I read this on Kindle. It wasn’t my cup of tea tone-wise but a lot of other people like it. If you consider yourself a very competitive person, you might like it.

If you do end up reading one of these, PLMK what you think. And if you have personal faves, please hit reply and let me know what I should add to the list :-)

Yours,

—J

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