Want to become a negotiation genius? The best way to pick up tips – and tricks – and gain an understanding of complex negotiation principles will always be to learn from the masters.
The modern world may be packed with different mediums to learn from, but there is still plenty of value to be found in a good book. Books on sales and negotiation usually contain real-life scenarios and case studies alongside useful, actionable advice that you can put into practice in your own negotiations.
Let's explore what we think to be some of the best books on negotiation out there. How many do you have in your reading list at the moment?
Deepak Malhotra is a professor at Harvard Business School and serves as the Faculty Chair for the Owner/President Management for entrepreneurs and business owners. Max Bazerman serves as Harvard Business School's Jesse Straus Professor of Business Administration. They have both produced papers and sales and negotiation books individually, but it is their joint venture that rightly nets a lot of praise.
Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond draws on behavioural research and psychology to break down real-life negotiations, especially when facing rebuttals from hostile or more powerful opponents. Perfect for first-time negotiators and more experienced hands alike, it offers practical tips to help those who need negotiation skills get ahead.
Robert Mnookin is the Samuel Williston Professor of Law and the Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. His titles are often counted amongst the best books on negotiation and his research areas also extend to include family law and children's rights, amongst other topics.
In his book Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight, Mnookin draws on eight examples from history and his own professional knowledge and experience to craft his arguments. Much of his book is centred around a particular thought: In any particular conflict, how should you decide whether or not it makes sense to negotiate?
Deborah Kolb is a leading authority on gender issues in negotiation and leadership and serves as the Co-Director of the Negotiations in the Workplace Project at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law. Jessica Porter is a consultant and speaker, having worked on women's leadership development programs across the world.
Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins into Big Gains was named one of the Best Negotiation Books of 2015 by TIME. It looks beyond many of the best sales and negotiation books by considering the whole process to be at the centre of many problem-solving initiatives. It is rooted in real-life examples from professionals across different countries and industries and provides strategies to get the other party to engage in problem-solving, even if they are reluctant to do so.
Sheila Heen is the Thaddeus R. Beal Professor of Practice and the Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project. She is also the founder of the Triad Consulting Group and specialises in tense and complex negotiations. Douglas Stone is a Managing Partner at Triad Consulting Group and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard with areas of interest in negotiation and alternative dispute resolution.
They understand that feedback is necessary for both professional and personal relationships, but that it can lead to some very difficult conversations if not approached correctly. Their book Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well aims to address this discomfort and confront it, and to give structure and tools to those who want to implement feedback into their working lives.
Daniel Shapiro is the founder of the Harvard International Negotiation Program and lectures across disciplines within the university. He has also advised successful negotiation processes around the world for the leaders of governments and industries.
Shapiro lays out five dynamics that can sabotage conflicts and offers guidance to help parties reach agreements. In Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts, his focus on providing insights into the emotional undercurrents that can wrest control at the negotiation table provides different perspectives than many other sales negotiation books.
Chris Voss is a former FBI kidnapping negotiator who has also taught the art of negotiation at Harvard, Georgetown University, and businesses needing help with complex disputes.
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It might discuss more high-stakes deals than some of the best books on sales and negotiation on the bookshelves beside it, but that does not stop it from being a great option for those interested in a more high-stakes negotiation process than most. The book talks through nine key principles that Voss and his FBI colleagues would actually use, giving plenty of applications that carry over to business negotiation too.
Brian Gunia is a Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. His speciality is on theoretically-motivated measures that can help people avoid some of the most common reasons people self-sabotage their careers.
The Bartering Mindset: A Mostly Forgotten Framework for Mastering Your Next Negotiation challenges us to rethink how we see the world around us and the monetary mindset many of us have in place. By taking this viewpoint to the bargaining table, Gunia shows us how to break down effective negotiation into five easy steps.
Michael Wheeler is a professor at Harvard Business School and serves as the editor of the Program on Negotiation's Negotiation Journal.
He argues that the best negotiators are those who know how to expertly manage chaos and change. In his book The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World, he invites readers to explore how negotiation is a joint process that requires work and agreements across both parties if a reasonable conclusion is to be made.
William Ury is one of the co-founders of Harvard's Negotiation Project and has co-written many of the best books on negotiation often used by the masters. He has also worked as a consultant and mediator for international businesses and conflicts all around the world.
Getting Past No: Negotiating With Difficult People is an exploration of negotiation when all the other party is saying is no. Ury offers a strategy to help people manage communication and stay in control during these difficult conversations, ultimately and hopefully reaching agreements in a satisfactory manner.
Could we really round out a list of the best books on negotiation without a cheeky little mention of our own? Our CEO Horace McDonald edited this book, and his years of experience at both Scotwork and across his previous roles.
Once upon a deal...: Stories about life, work & negotiation brings together the experiences and strategies our negotiation experts have met over the years. Across these pages, you will learn our established Eight Step Framework and how it can benefit your own understanding of the nuances of negotiation.
How do you find the right sales and negotiation book for you? Depending on your negotiation skills, you might be searching for something for beginners, or you might be looking for something with more in-depth tips and secrets for success for those who already know their way around the bargaining table.
So, how do you find the best sales negotiation books for you?
Firstly, we recommend that you pick the right medium for absorbing the book's knowledge. Many experts accept that there are four types of learners, and not everyone can sit down, read a book, and interpret the lessons within it accurately. While read/write learners and visual learners might be fine with a physical or ebook, auditory learners will benefit more from an audiobook. Kinaesthetic learners might not find much value in a book at all and instead could receive more insight from attending a training course.
We also recommend that you also take a step away from strict sales negotiation books. As you can see from our list above, we have drawn from the expertise of people from all walks of life, and not all of their books are strictly sales-based. The mark of an expert negotiator is someone who can step into any situation and know how to find common ground. By only reading the best books on negotiation in one given niche, you will miss out on valuable perspectives.
Finally, we recommend looking for experts. The academics and psychologists who have written our books are bringing real-life, valuable experiences to the table. Make sure that whoever you learn from has credibility backing up their tips and tricks so you can be confident that you are learning from the best.
We think negotiation skills should be treated like any other business attribute. They need to be studied and developed if someone is to have the best chance at succeeding in their chosen career path. Here at Scotwork, we believe that everyone can benefit from learning how to negotiate, not just sales teams. A sales negotiation book is a great place to start, and specialist negotiation training will build on any tips gleaned from these books to give you real and actionable strategies to use during discussions.
Get in touch with Scotwork today to find out how our team can help you reach your full negotiating potential.
