A Good Read

If you are looking for a good read, I recommend “Never Split the Difference-negotiating as if your life depended on it” by Chris Voss.  This read is for anyone who does any form of negotiating, which, let’s face  it, who of us doesn’t on a daily basis (unless of course you are not having any contact with any other human being during your day).

Many years ago (too many to remember) I read the book “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fischer and William Ury that was for many years considered the book to read if you wanted to learn something about negotiating.

Enter Chris Voss who has, in his book, challenged the way we should look at negotiating based on his years spent as a FBI trained hostage negotiator.

A couple of interesting points Chris makes are:

“”No” is the start of the negotiation, not the end of it”

“The most powerful word in negotiations is “Fair””

“When calculating the final amount, use precise, nonround numbers like, say, $37,893 rather than $38,000.  It gives the number credibility and weight.”

“In a study of the components of lying, Havard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra and his co-authors found that, on average, liars use more words than truth tellers and use far more third-person pronouns” 

Having recently finished reading this book I found a lot of it applies in both the private and professional life.  So, if you are looking for something to read and enjoy while at the same time learn a few skills that will help you in your personal life as well as your business then pop down to your local bookstore ($22.99 at QBD) or go on-line (from $8.30 on Amazon) and grab this good read.