See the World From Their Shoes, Don’t Feel Their Pain

by Osman Parvez
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At Realty Unique, we do a lot of negotiation and leverage our skills to benefit our clients. We also constantly seek to improve by studying the art of negotiation. Last week, I came across a good piece on two negotiation tactics and their success rates in The Economist. I thought it might benefit the readers of the blog.

The article focuses on two common tactics; empathy and perspective. Empathy is the ability to connect with your counter party emotionally. Perspective is the ability to see the situation from their point of view. Good negotiation usually includes elements of both but I was surprised at the advantage perspective has on the success of negotiation. If you’re looking to hone your negotiation skills, you might enjoy the full article.

Here’s a few key points (via selective quotes):

When the buyer in particular had a perspective-taking ability it could predict a successful outcome. It was the pair with a perspective-taking buyer who were more likely to strike a deal (76%) than the empathisers (54%), followed by the control group (39%) Even with one negotiator having perspective-taking abilities it can produce a better overall outcome for both sides.

“You want to understand what the other side’s interests are, but you do not want to sacrifice your own interests,” says Dr Galinksy. “A large amount of empathy can actually impair the ability of people to reach a creative deal.”

image: salimfadhley

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