Brief Book Review: Jim Camp’s “Start With No”
WHETHER you’re a titled-leader or just human, you need to understand negotiation, and how to be good at it.
Almost every time you interact with others, it’s a negotiation. From deciding where to go for dinner to closing a multi-million dollar deal, you need to negotiate. Sure, the seriousness of outcomes is different, but the same principles apply. And the first principle is, don’t be “needy”.
Feel like, and worse, display, that you need this deal, that you’ll never “walk away”, no matter the price, and you’ve shown your hand. And the sharks are circling.
Jim’s tactics seem to fly in the face of today’s “win-win” mantra. Even he says so. I don’t think so. I don’t think any deal, any trade, gets done unless both parties feel they are winning, and each side’s responsibility is to get what they want, or walk away. That’s a real win-win.
That doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible, can’t accommodate reasonable requests, but you don’t go into any negotiation with the other side as your primary concern.
I cannot recommend any other book on negotiation.