• Don’t be afraid to have a difficult conversation. 
  • Build some level of affiliation with the other party and be nice.
  • Know your goal.
  • Find the proper balance between collaboration and success versus the allocation of blame and the consequences of failure. 
  • Prepare Diligently—Confident enough to perform…humble enough to prepare. 
  • Target those issues with a high probability of occurrence and high impact. For everything else, put your best foot forward. 
  • Move swiftly but not recklessly—time is never a good reason to make a bad decision. 
  • Control your destiny. Carefully manage and mitigate risks you don’t control. 
  • Only agree to provisions you intend to fully enforce during the term.  
  • Use inquiry versus advocacy—check your bias at the door. Seek to understand versus seeking to be understood. 
  • Be a good LIAR—listen, inquire, acknowledge, and respond. 
  • Rather than saying no…under what conditions might you say yes? 
  • Know your BATNA and estimate theirs (Be Honest) before you sit down at the table. 
  • If you are going to assert your BATNA, make sure you are fully prepared for the consequences that may result from doing so. 
  • Think of negotiation as a puzzle to be solved not a battle to be won. 
  • Don’t assume your interest’s conflict with those of the other party. 
  • The question is not what you look at but what you see.
  • Separate the relationship from the substance of the negotiation. Don’t get entrapped by the relationship. Remember you can maintain a good relationship with your client AND remain principled, disciplined, and fact-based during the negotiation process. 
  • Have someone in the balcony.
  • Document your progress – use decision records and celebrate small victories.
  • When negotiating, try to find the balance between empathy (seeking to understand the other party’s perspective and expressing it in a non-judgmental manner) and assertiveness (expressing and advocating for your own needs, interests, and perspectives.