Business and Money Tips

We teach people how to call the bluff in negotiation, but don't expose the bluff. The following 7 are the most common ways people bluff you in negotiation. Know the true meaning and be smart today!  "This is absolutely non-negotiable"  Deng Xiao Ping said this in 1979 to UK's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This of course is a big bluff, for if nothing is negotiable, why do they come to the negotiating table? "We are not ready to discuss" Same obvious buff as above "We need to go back and study this and cannot commit to you now"  This bluff is actually to ask you to change your proposal. If I were to propose selling to them at $1, would they need to study and not commit now? "We understand your concern". This means they want you to understand their concern first  "We like your proposal very much..." What follows is a big bargaining! "Seems very far from what we expect"  This is a good bluff for they indicat

By applying Sun Tzu Art of War's 5 Elements of 道天地将法 , we can improve our negotiation easily in this order as follows: Purpose 道: The purpose of your negotiation is not to get the best deal for yourself, nor is it to squeeze your customer or supplier.  Sun Tzu said the highest ground shall be your purpose, so in business our purpose of negotiating is to have a long term win-win relationship .  Because if we are only interested in one-off deal, we don't need to negotiate, we just adopt a 'take it or leave it' attitude.   Boundaries 天 : Know your boundaries, i.e. your limits, what you can give and what are absolutely non-negotiable, like your integrity.    Details 地 : The devil is in the details, never leave details to another day, for it is only at the negotiation table that you have the opportunity to get what you want, including the details. Always minute down the details for you cannot rely on faint memory.  Lead   将.  Yes, you have to lead the negotiation a

I had a good conversation with my friend that day who complained to me how many problems he has: family, business, work, finance and health.  I told him that actually he has no problems because all his problems are created by himself.  At first he wanted to throttle me, but later when I explained to him calmly, his mind started to open up. At the end of our conversation he was so elated and thanked me profusely.  I promised him that I would stand by him no matter what happened.  He asked me to share what I taught him, that's why I created this post on my blog. People make problems out of no problems in 5 ways: Craving, Possession, Clinging, Closing of Options and Never Negotiate. Craving is the Beginning of Problems    People craved for things, which is not the same as desire or wanting.  It's okay to want or desire things, but when you crave for things you become so hard up that you become irrational .  You just want to have things because that's what you want.