A lot of times the negotiation has next to nothing to do with what is actually being negotiated (Think family situations), but about the whole power and control trip.

In that case, being too honest is indeed a way to lose.

As for writing up the deal, one of the first rules of negotiation should be ONLY dealing with whoever has the final OK. (Learned this from the sales people I’ve worked with over the years doing sales promotion work.)

Unfortunately, because of that whole power trip thing, so many people in biz won’t even tell you that they are NOT the final person to OK the deal.

Of course, even when some salespeople think they are, they are undermined by a manager or boss.

We’re in a service business and one of the first things we do is qualify who can really say “YES.” cause too much time is generally wasted on folks who have nothing to do with the final decision, other than preliminary vetting.

What we’ve learned: Any company that turns over the vetting/negotiating process to amateurs and the lowest-ranking staffers isn’t worth doing business with.

(Why do we say that? When you prepare a bid/proposal and the person doesn’t even know what you’re talking about, how can that person then make an intelligent decision on our suitability for the work? Answer: They can’t. If the person(s) we would be working with are too busy to meet with us, well, then, that’s not a good sign.)

The best negotiating tactic other than the basics noted: Always be prepared to walk away. Without regret.

When I first started working as an independent contractor, and had to deal with the one-on-one “negotiating” for the possible work, I always kept that option open in my mind–even if I knew that I really needed/wanted the work.

For the most part, it worked well because I did have some bargaining chips.

It’s often hard to see what your real bargaining chips are because a lot of people are very hard to read when it comes to determining what really motivates them to close a deal. And what seems like what they want is often NOT the case.

Timing (and patience) is also critical. (On both sides) The more rushed you are, the more the other person is likely to draw things out or complicate them.

Sometimes negotiations fall apart for truly simple and stupid things you cannot prepare for or anticipate.

And if you feel bad about not doing well with negotiating, remember: There are people in government whose sole job is to negotiate change, etc. who spend years, unsuccessfully, before any real breakthrough.

And finally, some things in life are NON-negotiable. Period.

One thing not mentioned here is who writes up the deal. I’ve seen many victories attained in negotiations lost to the fine print or boilerplate of the paperwork. If you’re not going to be the one writing it up, you absolutely must know what will be in the paperwork before you conclude the deal.

Your website has become very slow and pretty unresponsive since the past few days.

Could it be a coincidence that it happened the same time since you said you will be making some changes to your website.

I use Mozilla and it takes pretty long time to even load. There are lot of advertisements being loaded that is taking a lot of time.