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Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves and their businesses. They are always looking for ways to separate themselves from the crowd to best improve their chances of success. One highly important but often overlooked area for improving business I believe is your negotiation abilities. Here’s 3 reasons I believe you need to become a better negotiator.

1. To improve your business performance

This is an obvious one. The ability to purchase materials, equipment, assets etc at a low price and selling products and services at a high price is the general premise of a successful business model. 

If you take the time to learn good negotiation, you will improve your ability to gain better deals with both your suppliers and your customers. Being able to find the balance with getting the best price for yourself but also allowing for your customers to feel they’ve earned a great deal is a great place to be in. Good negotiation strategies will allow you to take the best routes in your sales and discussions to achieve this balance. 

2. Negotiation Allows you to get better deals in everyday life

Once you learn about negotiation and develop a keen interest for it, you will see it almost as a game. You’ll see opportunities to play this game all over the place. Learning to be good at this game will allow you to get a better outcome out of a scenario but also enhancing your relationship with that individual. 

Before I spent some time learning about negotiation, I was too afraid to barter a price with a sales person. Now I see it as entertaining and I enjoy seeing the best deal I could get for something.

An example of this would be …

when I went to purchase a car last year. I saw a car I liked and played the conversation on a neutral level of emotion not giving much away. When it came to offering a price I remembered the one of the most important rules of negotiation, ‘always ask for less than you think you can get’. So I asked for a price which was 10% less than the asking price. 

To my surprise, the dealer straight up said OK to my offer. I was kicking myself afterwards as I realised I could have offered lower. However, my point is, had I not learnt about negotiation, there’s no way I would have asked for 10% off and I would have paid hundreds of more pounds for the car. Next time I know to ask for even lower prices and save hundreds more. 

And this isn’t just for cars. There’s money to be saved and made in many different opportunities. From house purchases, to transport services, furniture, 2nd hand sports equipment and in many more places. As long as you can talk in person to an individual who has control over the pricing of the product or service (i.e. Not a large store) there’s money to be made and saved if you are willing to negotiate.

3. To improve your confidence

This is my favourite reason. I’m not a naturally confident person in social situations. I’m an introvert and feel anxious when talking with new groups of people. However, now that I see negotiation as a game to enjoy the challenge of dealing with financial discussions in the most profitable way, I am more motivated to be pushed out of my comfort zone. 

I no longer see these awkward money talks as bad, where i’m too afraid to offer less than the asking price. I see it as a fun opportunity. This has definitely helped develop me as a person as well as just in business.

So as you can gather, although at the moment I only know a basic amount about negotiation, The knowledge I have gained has already improved my life dramatically. In my personal development as well as business development.

If you are an entrepreneur looking to take your business to the next level. I highly recommend you focus on the basics of good negotiation. There’s nothing to lose and so much to gain. 

The best book I’ve read on negotiation is ‘Secrets Of Power Negotiating’ by Roger Dawson. You can find a link to the book below…

Note: The link above is an affiliate link. I will make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) upon purchase through the link. This is simply to help support the running of the website. Thanks.

Thanks for reading…

I hope you found this post to be of value. If you found it interesting or have anything to add, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. If you’d like to learn more about building extra income streams in your life, you may enjoy the Personal Finance section of the Money Your Concern website. For some motivation, you may find value in checking out my journey. I’m striving to increase my online income, to ultimately reach financial freedom. For this, you can check out the Blog section of this website.

Best of luck with your own financial journey.

Harry