From Dale Armor — Principal at Acquisition Experts, LLC in Stuart, FL.

Modern negotiating techniques involve four key steps. 1. Finding out what each party knows. 2. Discovering when and where they found the information to gauge preset expectations. 3. Determining what’s important and preferential to the other side. 4. Summarizing what all of this means to you in terms of dealing effectively with their expectations. Why is it that a Buyer and Seller place a different value on the same thing? Many negotiations take place without the parties really seeking to discover what the needs and preferences of the other side really are. The focus of these questions is to discover as quickly and accurately as possible the valuation and informational differences that exist between the parties. With this in hand you have the information you need to effectively structure a transaction that the Parties or other side are willing to accept. DA