tx marketing ii: negotiation techniques...negotiation techniques 2tx marketing ii: agreement:...

TX Marketing II:

Negotiation Techniques

1 TX Marketing II: Negotiation Techniques

Glossary

Acceptable Value Range: The coinciding values that would result in a successful

negotiation; in the case of real estate, it usually refers to prices at which a seller will

sell and a buyer will buy.

Active Listening: Active listening is an engaged process through which the listener

confirms their understanding of the messages others are trying to convey to them

by asking questions and paraphrasing their words. In particular, the listener is

trying to make certain that he or she truly hears what the speaker is saying, rather

than simply forging ahead with their own interpretation of the situation.

Active Voice: The condition of verbs found in conventional sentence structures in

which the subject is performing the action.

Actor-Observer Error: This is a kind of attribution error in which we attribute our

own behavior to external causes (like bad luck or circumstance) while attributing

others’ actions to internal causes (like personality traits). This error often leads us

to excuse our own conduct while criticizing others who are behaving similarly.

Adaptors: Postural changes and other movements that occur at a low level of

awareness and are frequently made in order to feel more comfortable or to

perform a specific physical function.

Affective Displays: Body (usually facial) movements that display a certain affective

state, i.e. emotions.


Agreement: Intentionally and overtly approving or accepting a particular element

of an offer.

Agreement-focused Close: The agreement-focused close is a closing technique

that actively engages the prospect in building a picture of the ways a deal satisfies

his or her needs, wants, and desires. Then after securing his or her agreement

these features as benefits, the real estate negotiator then asks the prospect to

commit to the deal.

Amygdala: An almond-shaped part of the brain located in the medial temporal

lobe that is the source of a person's most powerful emotional memories and is

linked to a person's primal "fight or flight," or "fear," response, as well as the

production of pleasure and anxiety.

Anxiety: Unhealthy, cyclical, excessive stress that is impervious to logic that usually

long outlasts the cause.

Artistic Information: A stated conclusion or deduction; a conveyed invention.

Avoiding: This is a response to conflict which aims for non-engagement. Our goal is

not to get involved with the conflict at all; avoiding the conflict sometimes includes

making an effort to stay away from the other party.


Bar Graph: A representation of the X- and Y-axis with a series of blocks running

along either the X-axis or the Y-axis that correspond in either height or length

(relatively) to the numerical values on the opposing axis that is constructed in an

attempt to illustrate the relationship between the values listed.

Bargaining Mix: A negotiation rarely involves just one issue. The bargaining mix is

the collection of issues or goals involved in a particular negotiation, some of which

are generally more important than others.

Bargaining Range: The bargaining range is the area of potential agreement in

negotiation. It is determined by the “space” between negotiators’ bottom lines. For

example, imagine you are selling a car and your asking price is $12,000. If you won’t

take less than $10,000 for your car (your bottom line) and I won’t pay more than

$11,000 (my bottom line), then we have a bargaining range of $1,000. The spread

between $10,000 and $11,000 consists of prices that we would both find

acceptable, at least in principle.

Bargaining: Bargaining is the process of making offers, counteroffers, and

tradeoffs in the hopes of reaching a mutually acceptable solution. We often think

of negotiation and bargaining as the same thing, but bargaining is actually only one

part of the negotiation process.


BATNA: “BATNA” is an acronym which stands for “best alternative to negotiated

agreement.” Your BATNA is essentially your best backup plan, in case negotiation

fails or cannot provide an outcome above your bottom line. It is important to

understand your BATNA because it can help you decide whether negotiation is a

good choice for you, and it can help you determine what counts as a good offer in

negotiation.

Benefit: A property or deal offers a benefit when it has features that link up with a

prospect’s pre-existing needs, wants or desires. When the features of a property or

deal are explicitly connected with a prospect’s interests and concerns, they become

more than mere features – they are translated into the positive factors the prospect

will weigh against the negative aspects of a deal or property.

Body Language: The gestures, postures, and facial expressions by which a person

manifests various physical, mental, or emotional states and communicates

nonverbally with others.

Bottom Line: Your bottom line is the least appealing outcome you are willing to

accept from negotiation. It represents the greatest sacrifice of your interests that

you are willing to make before negotiation becomes a losing strategy for you. The

bottom line is sometimes also called the “resistance point,” since a negotiator will

not readily go beyond it.


Brainstorming: Brainstorming is a creative process for generating possible

solutions to a conflict. Rather than taking the conflict and possible outcomes as

given, brainstorming aims to help us rethink our situation. Generally the ultimate

goal of brainstorming is to create a solution that helps both parties to get more of

the value or benefit they want.

Buzz Words: Fashionable, industry-specific terms.

Clarifying Question: Clarifying questions are a strategic method that real estate

negotiators can use to make certain they understand what the other parties are

telling them. “Are you saying that this is the lowest price you will accept?” is an

example of a clarifying question.

Cognitive bias: Cognitive biases are common ways we oversimplify information—

or fill in the missing parts of incomplete information—in order to make that

information manageable. However, these patterns of thought can lead us into

errors and misunderstandings when we are not thoughtful about the conclusions

we draw from them.

Collaborating: This is a response to conflict in which we try to work together to find

a way that we can both achieve our goals. Successful collaboration often requires

that we reconsider our situation and think creatively about alternatives we might

not have initially been willing to consider.

Commitment: A commitment is a tool for defining your position in negotiation. It

amounts to stating your position along with an assurance about your future


behavior relative to your demands in negotiation. For example, I make a

commitment when I say “If you do not give me a raise, I will quit” or “If you agree to

give me a raise, I will increase department revenues by 15%.” Commitments are

effectively promises, and should be honored in the same way. In addition,

commitments with a negative overtone (like the threat to quit, above) are often

perceived by the other party as threats, which can create further problems and

conflicts in negotiation.

Competing: This is a response to conflict in which we see ourselves in a struggle

with the other party to divide a fixed amount of benefit or value. The competitive

response sees conflict as a zero-sum game; whatever one party gains is a loss for

the other side. When we react competitively, we choose to pursue our own interests

at the expense of the other party’s aims.

Compromising: This is a response to conflict in which we try to share gains and

losses between both parties. Each party agrees to modify his initial demands, so

that both parties can get some of what they want.

Concession: A concession is an offer made by one party to the other, in which she

suggests a decrease in her own benefits. Concessions generally amount to offering

some benefit or value to the other party, and are one of the main tools that move

negotiations toward a solution. They often take the form of tradeoffs, for example “I

will give up X if you will give up Y, or if you will give me Z instead.” The willingness to

make concessions is generally essential to productive negotiation.


Conflict: A conflict is a disagreement between two or more parties about how

some benefit or value should be divided. Conflict is not inherently bad; given that

we are interdependent creatures who frequently engage in cooperative projects, we

should assume that conflict is a natural part of human life.

Connotation: The unsaid implications of a specific term or phrase that arises

because of a term or phrase's usage.

Constructive Conflict: Conflict is constructive when it moves issues or

relationships forward in a respectful, positive way. It resolves conflicts instead of

creating them, and it generates solutions both parties can accept. Constructive

conflict generally focuses on the real subject of the conflict, and does not deploy

strategies like threats or personal criticism.

Contingency Close: The contingency closing method helps us secure commitment

to a deal even when important problems remain unsolved. In essence, using this

approach means asking the prospect, “If we can solve these problems, will you

commit to this deal?” The real estate negotiator must then do the work of obtaining

concessions or putting other solutions in place.

Counteroffer: A rejection of an offer to buy or sell with a simultaneous substitute

offer.

Defense: The act of defending against attack, danger or injury.


Denotation: The literal definition of a word that one obtains from a dictionary or

other, similar language authority.

Desires: Desires are the most ambiguous sort of motive that drives people to seek

certain things in a deal. They are not as specific as needs or wants; often, desires

are not all that clear to those who have them. The real estate negotiator will

generally not hear about a person’s desires until some specific feature of a deal or

property triggers the person to mention them.

Destructive Conflict: Destructive conflict produces more problems than it solves.

It is generally highly divisive, because parties are personally identified with their

positions. Communication in such conflicts focuses on criticizing or blaming the

other party, and rather than building on common interests the negotiators use

threats and deception to achieve their goals.

Diction: Word choice, especially when commenting on the appropriateness of word

choice.

Direct Object: The part of a sentence that is being acted upon; a complement that

completes the reader's understanding of a verb or verb phrase.

Directive Close: The directive close is a very forthright closing method. When the

real estate negotiator judges that the prospect is ready for the final push to close

the deal, he or she reiterates the ways in which the positive aspects of the deal

satisfy the prospect’s needs, wants, and desires, and then immediately asks the

prospect to commit to the deal.


Disagreement: Intentionally and overtly disapproving of a particular element of an

offer.

Distributive Bargaining: Distributive bargaining is one of the two main

approaches to negotiation. It is a fundamentally competitive strategy for dividing

up value or benefit, and its basic goal is to push the other party as close to his or

her bottom line as far as possible so that you can capture a maximum amount of

the contested value or benefit for yourself.

Emblems: Nonverbal messages that have a verbal complement.

Emotion: A feeling generated by some stimulus, either external or internal, and its

related thoughts and biological processes.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ or EI): The appropriateness and effectiveness of

emotions, as well as the ability to handle and utilize emotions.

Emotional Mask: A behavior (such as bullying, feigned indifference or sarcasm)

that is meant to hide a person's real emotions so as to avoid feeling or appearing

venerable.

Emotion-Management Intelligence: What allows a person to control himself or

herself, console himself or herself, and "bounce back" from life's setbacks.


Emotion-Recognition Intelligence: What allows a person to develop self-

awareness, as well as the ability to define and predict emotions in others.

Empathy: Understanding of another person’s situation, feelings or motives.

Ethical Considerations: Ethical considerations are criteria that help us decide

whether a negotiated solution is a morally good outcome. They tell us about

whether a particular outcome conforms to (or violates) ethical standards. We

generally believe that ethical considerations tell us about what we should do, and

that these considerations often override practical or prudential considerations. For

example, if I need money right now, it might be that stealing your money would be

both the easiest thing to do and the act that best serves my interests. However, we

still do not think that stealing your money is the right thing for me to do. The

conclusion that it is morally wrong provides me with a reason not to do it—a reason

which overrides the practical and prudential considerations in favor of the act.

Ethos: Utilizing authority and moral character to persuade; appealing to an

audience by focusing on a speaker or writer's assumed moral or ethical character.

Etiquette: The appropriate behavior in a given situation or environment

established by an authority or tradition.


Exploratory Question: Exploratory questions are a strategic method the real

estate negotiator can use to gather more information about someone’s position.

They are usually very broad and open-ended; the point is not to get a specific piece

of information but rather to invite people to openly discuss their feelings and

positions. “Would you tell me more about why you feel that way?” is an example of

an exploratory question.

Fear: A feeling of agitation or anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of

danger; apprehension.

Feature: Features are the aspects of a property or a deal that make it what it is, and

make it stand apart from other, similar properties or deals.

Fiduciary Duty or Fiduciary Obligation: A fiduciary duty exists when a client

places special trust and confidence in another person, relying upon that person to

use their expert knowledge and insight to act for the client, and the trusted person

knowingly accepts the client’s faith and confidence.

Fiduciary: A person who essentially holds the character of a trustee. Real estate

brokers and salespersons are considered by law to be fiduciaries; thus, they have a

duty to act primarily for their clients’ benefit and not their own. A fiduciary must act

with the highest degree of care and good faith in relations with the client and in his

or her work on the client’s behalf. A person acting as a fiduciary is required to make

truthful and complete disclosures to those placing trust in him or her, and he/she is

forbidden to obtain an unreasonable advantage at his client's expense. The

penalties for failing in fiduciary duties may be quite severe.


Fundamental Attribution Error: When we make this mistake, we attribute

behavior to internal causes (like character traits or motives) rather than external

ones (like luck or circumstance), even when the cause is visibly external.

Halo Effect: The “halo effect” is the cognitive bias that leads me to draw general

conclusions about a person based on her or his specific traits. For example,

research has shown that people tend to assign positive personality traits to those

they find attractive. Clearly, there is no necessary connection between being

handsome and being a good person. Like stereotyping, halo effects are problematic

because they keep us from seeing the real facts about the other party.

High-pressure or “Hardball” Negotiation Tactics: High-pressure negotiation

tactics try to force the other party to accept an outcome that he or she would

normally reject. Strategies like deception and intimidation are often used to push

the other party to take offers at or below his or her bottom line. The high-pressure

approach can backfire badly when the other party later decides she or he has been

treated unfairly and will not honor the negotiated agreement, or seeks revenge.

Hostile Questioning: Hostile questioning presents criticisms or accusations in the

form of a question. For example, “Don’t you think you’re being unreasonable?” is a

hostile question. For various reasons, hostile questions are likely to elicit negative

reactions and should generally be avoided. If you genuinely feel you must make a

criticism, it is best to do this in the form of a statement and to offer support for

your claim.

Illustrators: Nonverbal messages used to illustrate what is being said.


Inartistic Information: Data, research, testimony or other "found" materials.

Indirect Object: To whom/what or for whom/what a direct object is directed or

intended.

Integrative Negotiation: Integrative negotiation is one of the two main

approaches to negotiation. It is a fundamentally collaborative strategy for dividing

up value or benefit, and its basic goal is to maximize the value or benefit available

to both parties.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ): The result (quotient) of dividing a subject's mental age

by the subject's actual age and then the result (product) of multiplying that value by

100.

Interests: A negotiator’s interests are the goals or aims she or her wants to see

achieved in negotiation.

Kinesics: The study of nonverbal body movements, such as gestures or facial

expressions, as a systematic mode of communication.

Line Graph: An illustration of numerical values plotted on a grid made of the X- and

Y-axis with a line connecting the points together.

Logos: Presenting logic to persuade; appealing to an audience by focusing on the

logical progression of a communicator's thoughts.


Maximal Demand: If you state the outcome you want most (your ideal objective)

as your opening position, then it is called your maximal demand because it

represents the most you think you can get from negotiation.

Medial Temporal Lobe: A large section of the brain commonly called the limbic

system composed of three structures: the olfactory cortex, which stores the sense

of smell; the amygdala, which houses emotional memories linked to fear, anxiety

and pleasure and produces the "flight or fight" response; and the hippocampus,

which is involved in all types of memory.

Modifier: A term that specifies the meaning of another term; an adjective or

adverb.

Motives: Motives are the reasons why people do, or want, the things that they do.

A good real estate negotiator must know more than just what people want from a

deal. He or she must also know why they want those things. This knowledge can

help him or her to identify the deals that will satisfy their needs, wants, and desires.

Multimedia: Computer-assisted or generated colors, images, animations, and

sounds that are meant to engage an audience.

Needs: Needs are a person’s primary priorities, the things he or she must have if a

deal is to be acceptable. These are the most fundamental reasons why a person

wants what he or she does from a deal.


Negative Bargaining Range: There is no overlap between the outcomes the

parties will accept. For example, if we are dividing a pie and you want half of the

pie while I want three quarters—and neither party is willing to modify his

demands—then there is no possible outcome that can give both of us what we

want.

Negotiation: Negotiation is a bargaining process between two or more parties who

believe they are in conflict, via which they try to reach a mutually acceptable

solution. This conflict can be a real clash between goals, or it can be merely an

apparent clash created by the way the various parties perceive their situation.

Negotiator: A negotiator is anyone who is working with the other side of a conflict

to reach a solution. Sometimes, the negotiators are the people or groups in

conflict; in other situations, there may be an individual or team who is appointed

specifically to manage a conflict for each side. Another possibility is appointing an

impartial negotiator to mediate between the two sides. In this course, the term

“negotiator” generally denotes someone involved in the conflict, not an impartial

mediator.

Non-agreement: Intentionally and overtly withholding approval of a particular

element of an offer.

Non-disagreement: Intentionally and overtly withholding disapproval of a

particular element of an offer.


Objection: An objection is resistance to or disapproval of a particular aspect of a

deal or a property. Objections are not always expressed openly, and a good real

estate negotiator must develop skills for spotting unstated objections.

Obsession: An unhealthy fixation on a specific item or situation.

Offer: A proposal which, if accepted, will become a contract.

Opening Position: Your opening position is your initial statement of what you want

from negotiation. Since it is made before interacting with the other party—and

thus before it is clear whether concessions will be necessary—it is often

considerably different from the actual outcome.

Outcome: An agreement reached via negotiation. This term is used

interchangeably with “result,” solution,” and “settlement.”

Outline: A document or computer-generated image that contains diminishing

Roman and Arabic numerals and phonetic characters that correspond to

increasingly specific points of a piece.

Panic Attack: An uncomfortable, physical aliment triggered by a stressful situation

or sight and characterized by extreme emotional anxiety, as well as a heightened

pulse, a fast heart rate, and hyperventilation.


Passive Voice: The condition of verbs when the subject of a sentence is acted

upon, as oppose to the conventional, active sentence structure in which the subject

performs the action.

Pathos: Engaging emotions to persuade; appealing to an audience by pushing their

"emotional buttons."

Phobia: An irrational fear of a specific item or situation.

Pie Chart: A circular illustration sectioned off in relation to the parts of some whole

in an attempt to show the relationship of data, which is usually represented as a

percentage.

Positive Bargaining Range: When we have a positive bargaining range, this means

that there is “space” between the two parties’ bottom lines. There is a zone of

potential agreement in which we can find solutions that do not require either of us

to accept outcomes below our bottom lines. For example, if you are selling

something and I am willing to pay at least a bit more than the lowest offer you will

accept, then we can bargain with each other in that range between the most I will

pay and the least you will accept.


Practical Considerations: Practical considerations are a kind of criteria that help

us to decide whether a negotiated outcome is a good one. They include questions

of cost, time, efficiency, ease and the like. For a practical consideration to tell us

anything about what we should do, we must already have an interest in whatever

trait it tells us about. For example, if I am unconcerned about the cost of solving a

conflict, then the fact that one solution is the cheapest one is not relevant to me—it

tells me nothing about whether that solution would be a good one to pursue.

However, practical considerations alone cannot tell me everything I need to know to

assess a solution. I generally need the further information provided by prudential

and ethical considerations before I can make a final evaluation.

Prefrontal Cortex: A part of the brain located directly behind the forehead in which

all activities of the "working memory" occur that is connected through a

neurological path directly to the amygdala.

Product: The value resulting when one multiples a value by another value. For

example, 6 × 3 = 18. Consequently, the product is 18.

Prospect: A prospect is someone who tentatively plays a certain role in a deal. For

example, a prospect might be a prospective buyer, someone who is considering

buying a particular property. A prospect can also be a prospective seller. Since a

person is not properly called a “buyer” or a “seller” until they actually buy or sell

something, “prospect” is a convenient term to describe this intermediate stage.


Prudential Considerations: Prudential considerations are a second kind of criteria

that help us to decide whether a negotiated outcome is a good one. They tell us

about how well (or poorly) an outcome serves our personal interests. For example,

prudential considerations are the sort of thing which tell me that jumping off a cliff

is probably not the best way to get to the bottom, even though that might be the

fastest way to get there. We generally assume that everyone wants to see her or

his personal goals achieved and her or his interests protected, and thus prudential

criteria are usually understood to give us some important information about what

we should or should not do. However, I generally need the further information

provided by prudential and ethical considerations before I can make a final

evaluation of an outcome.

Quotient: The value resulting when one divides a value by another value. For

example 6 ÷ 3 = 2. Consequently, the quotient of the example problem is 2.

Regulators: Nonverbal signs that regulate, modulate, and maintain the flow of

speech during a conversation.

Relationships Intelligence: What allows a person to develop relationships

effectively, understand the emotions behind relationships, and work well with

others; relationship competence is often associated with the ready receipt of

healthful feedback from others and the willingness to compromise and improve.

Rhetoric: The ability to see the best means of persuasion and effectively utilizing

those means.


Self-Motivation Intelligence: What enables a person to focus efforts upon what is

really important, allocate time efficiently, and direct emotions to complete goals.

Self-Serving Error: This is the third common attribution error, in which we

conclude that our successes should be explained by internal causes (i.e., we should

get credit for them), but our failures should be explained by external causes which

are beyond our control.

Short-Term Memory: The antiquated term for "working memory" and its related

activities in the prefrontal cortex.

Spreadsheet: A form comprised of corresponding rows and columns used to store

information.

Stalemate: Negotiators have reached a stalemate when they find that negotiations

cannot move forward. Stalemates arise in many ways—for example, both parties

might stubbornly refuse to modify their positions, or they may feel they have

exhausted all possible options without reaching an agreement. “Stalemate” is used

interchangeably here with “impasse” and “deadlock.”

Stereotyping: When I stereotype someone, I take one piece of information about

him—the fact that he is member of a certain group—and then assign other traits

and features to him based on popular generalizations about that group. In essence,

I use one general feature about him to draw specific conclusions about his behavior

and motives. Stereotyping is problematic in negotiation because it often obscures


the actual information before us, thereby leading us to misunderstand the other

party and his goals.

Strategic Questions: Strategic questions are a negotiating tactic that the real

estate negotiator can use to encourage a prospect to think about the possible

consequences of their position. Often, there is no diplomatic way to tell the

prospect these things directly. For example, if you think a prospective seller has

wildly overestimated the amount they can get for his or her home, you might say,

“Do you really think you can afford to wait until we find someone willing to pay that

price?” The point here is to encourage the prospect to see things from your point of

view and to reach his or her own decision about the position they should take on

the issue.

Sympathy: The act of sharing the feelings of another person or being affected by

something in the same way as another person.

Synonym: A word that has a similar meaning to a given word (e.g. tiny, small and

little).

Target or Ideal Objective: Your target or ideal objective is the outcome you most

want from a negotiation. It is your preferred alternative among those possible in

negotiation, and generally sets the upper limit on what you think you can achieve

by negotiating.


Thesaurus: A published collection of terms or headings organized with a series of

cross-references that you can use to locate words with similar meanings.

Tone: The implied attitude of a communicator inferred from a communicator's

diction and style.

Venn Diagram: A series of interlocking circles that illustrate group membership by

placing an item in a circle group or overlapping region of two or more circle

groupings.

Verb Phrase: The phrase used to describe the action in a sentence when it involves

more than one word, which is usually a conjugation of the verb "to be" or "to have"

(am, is, are, were, have, etc.) and either a past participle (hid, sat, jumped, sold, etc.)

or a gerund (singing, laughing, selling, jumping, etc.); for example, was hiding, had

hit, is sending and was sent all are verb phrases.

Want: The condition or quality of lacking something usual or necessary.

Wants: Wants are secondary priorities, things that a person would like to have from

a deal but which are not usually essential. They are a second sort of motive that

drives people to seek certain things from a deal. Satisfying wants is always a plus,

but an unsatisfied want is not always a serious problem—unlike an unsatisfied

need, which can be a deal-breaker.


Working Memory: The more contemporary term for "short-term memory" that

refers to the portion of the prefrontal cortex that is used for all daily tasks and

temporary retention, including self-control, self-motivation, and problem solving.

Yielding: This is a response to conflict in which one party chooses to postpone or

sacrifice her goal, thereby allowing the other party to achieve his goals. This method

of handling conflict is also sometimes called “accommodating,” a term which some

people believe has a more positive connotation.

tx marketing ii: negotiation techniques...negotiation techniques 2tx marketing ii: agreement:...

Documents