Negotiating in Everyday Life

Ask for more, hold your ground, and keep the relationship intact in the ordinary conversations that decide your money and time.

This course is for members

$9 unlocks every course in the library, this one included, plus a credit to build a topic of your own and at least 10 new courses every month.

What you will learn about Negotiating in Everyday Life

The 7-day sprint
  1. Negotiation Is Just a Conversation About a Decision. Any conversation where two people need a joint decision and want different things is a negotiation, so the skill applies far beyond salary and cars.
  2. Prepare Your Walk-Away. Your power in any negotiation comes from how good your best alternative is if you say no, not from how tough you sound.
  3. Interests Beneath Positions. A position is what someone says they want; an interest is why they want it, and trades happen at the level of interests.
  4. Anchoring and the First Number. The first specific number spoken pulls the final outcome toward it, so decide deliberately whether to set it and how to answer one that is set against you.
  5. Trade, Never Concede. Every concession you make should buy something in return, even if the something is small, because free concessions teach the other side to keep pushing.
  6. Handling Pressure Without Escalating. When the conversation gets tense, slow it down and name what is happening instead of matching the other person's heat.
  7. Closing Clearly and Protecting the Relationship. A negotiation is only finished when both sides can state the same agreement in the same words, and how you end it determines the next one.
The 80/20: the 7 concepts that matter most
  • Your Best Alternative
  • Interests, Not Positions
  • Anchoring With a Reason
  • Trade, Don't Concede
  • Silence and Listening
  • Separate the Person From the Problem
  • Close With a Written Summary
The core idea, explained like you are 5

Negotiation is trading things you value differently so both sides end up better off than if you had simply split the difference or walked away.

Then the quiz and the ladder

10 questions that correct you when you are wrong, and beginner, intermediate, advanced levels, each with a practical exercise.