Fri, September 30, 2011 - 1:07:28

The Secret of Negotiation: Location, Location, Location!

For many professionals, the art of negotiation can be one of the toughest skills to master in the business world—not to mention one of the most anxiety inducing. But, it can also be one of the most rewarding, whether you’re working on behalf of your company, your clients, or yourself.
Naturally, like any other skill, negotiation takes practice. But, one important factor in helping get you what you want might surprise you. It’s not just what you say or how you say it that matters. Where you say it can be just as important.

In an excellent piece on the Harvard Business Review blog, Washington University in St. Louis professors Markus Baer and Graham Brown explain the rather startling findings of their own scholarly research. Baer and Brown write:

Our research has uncovered that residents of an office space — even after only 20 minutes of residing in a space — were able to claim as much as 160% more value in a distributive (“You win, I lose”) negotiation than the visiting party. And it is not only that residents do better when negotiating on their turf. Our study also revealed that entering someone else’s office space causes us to do worse.

One reason why location matters is that where we negotiate has a profound impact on how confident we are during the negotiation — and so much in a negotiation depends on our confidence.

It may seem inconsequential, but giving careful consideration to the location of your negotiation can provide you with a huge advantage, or at the very least put you on a level playing field. Holding an informal meeting with a superior at your workspace can actually make you more successful in your negotiation efforts, no matter what they might be.

So, when you’re laying out your strategy for your next big negotiation, don’t forget to consider the setting. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s one that can make an enormous difference!

Posted by Linda and Robin