When the average person thinks about negotiation, its typically informed by what they’ve seen on TV, or witnessed in market-stall type negotiations. It involves a back and forth on price with the two parties typically agreeing on a compromise number with the stereo-typical ‘lets meet in the middle’ agreement being the final words spoken before a handshake to conclude the deal.

It’s true that commoditized lower value negotiations can result in this type of ‘negotiation’ however if you are interested in negotiating larger deals and improving your closure rate then you should make one very important shift in your thinking and it’s this. Negotiation starts on the first engagement you have with your prospective customer and ends (for that deal at least) on the day you have a signed contract. Every step in between involves negotiation of some kind, and for the skilled negotiator results in the final deal closure being a matter of relative ease.