In your daily business and of course also outside of business you have to deal sometimes with difficult but important discussions and negotiations. “Important” because you have expected result which will have a high relevance you and “difficult” as the discussion partner will nearly never have the same opinions and goals.

 
There are a lot of factors affecting the properly execution of such conversations and of course directly affecting the results and outcomes. Following I want to give you a short overview about some important topics you should pay attention. These topics are grouped by actions you should do to prepare yourself for a discussion and actions you should do and observe during the conversation.

Preparation of the discussion: Define you Position

• Define the main discussion topics
• What are your maximum demands?
• What are your minimum demands?
• Think about conditions for compromises
• Prepare your Arguments

Preparation of the discussion: Think about the position of the discussion partner

• Suspected maximum demands
• Suspected minimum demands
• Suspected arguments
• Prepare counterargument for the suspected Arguments

Beginning of the discussion

• Start with some small talk
• Start the discussion by find out existing similarities and common goals of the discussion Partners

During the discussion

• Do not reduce the self-esteem of the other
• Allow discussion without losing face
• Try to talk about the topics in a clever and try to find partial achievements during the meeting
• Reasonably fast arguing increases persuasiveness
• The own speech quantity should not be too low
• Look for an open, relaxed posture
• If possible activate the other by demonstrations
• Repeat important points of view
• Look for a good presentation of your arguments so that they are plausible the discussion partner