CSUEB management professor offers tips for success negotiations

• April 19, 2011 5:06am

Cal State East Bay Management Professor Asha Rao spoke with Smart Business magazine on what business leaders should know about negotiating.

In the article, "How to avoid common missteps and negotiate successfully in any situation," Rao explained the importance of having strong negotiation skills, "We live in a society where everything's negotiable. So if you don't play the game well, you'll lose."

Rao said one of the most common misperceptions is that fairness equals equality, "We believe in fairness. In negotiations, professionals sometimes equate this with equality and assume that a good deal offers similar benefits to the participants, but it's rare that both parties are equal coming into the session and insisting on equality can shut down the talks without producing an agreement."

She also offered three tips to positively impact the ability to negotiate successfully:

1. Fastidiously research the issues before beginning, because great negotiators never wing it.

2. Find common ground. It's easier to reconcile differences if both parties realize why the other party wants something, and then focus on their common needs and interests.

3. Don't be so worried about winning that set aspirations too low. Rao said, "You may get you what you ask for but you end up overpaying or leaving money on the table."

Read Rao's interview.