Some people complain that negotiation just isn’t their forte, they don’t enjoy it and it makes them uncomfortable, and to them I say, go and get a job.

Because the fact is, if you want to run your own business – and reap the potential rewards of taking risks and building something for yourself, rather than slaving to make someone else rich – then your negotiation skills are going to be absolutely critical.

Other people tell me that negotiation doesn’t come naturally, but the fact is you can learn, and you must, because a business is essentially set up to negotiate, whether with customers, suppliers, employees, governments or partners.

Making things, or offering services, and selling them is the obvious part of business, but achieving a price at which you can sell your product is all about negotiation.

Negotiation is all about getting the best possible result for you and your business. And if I had to sum up in one word what it takes – beyond obvious things like the force of your personality, and your drive to succeed when you actually get into the room with the other party – I’d say it comes down to just one word – research.

Kerry Packer, a legend in the business world and a bloke who was a magnificent mentor to me, was famously one of the toughest negotiators there was, but I know for a fact that he never went into a deal without knowing absolutely everything about what the bloke on the other side of the desk was after, what his motivations were, and what he’d be willing to take.

Hell, I know for sure because I had to negotiate with him to give me his financial support for Wizard Home Loans, back in the day. And sure, he was tough, brutal even, but he always extremely well prepared as well, and I learned a lot from watching him.

While you need to know everything you can about the other person, their business, their financial situation, their goals, but even more than that you need to know their motivation.

If you’re pitching to a public servant to take over a government contract, their motivation is probably going to be about making their own lives easier, and cost might be less of a factor; it’s not their money after all.

If you’re making a deal with a small-business owner, you know they’re going to be motivated by trying to grow their business while keeping costs down.

In every case, you need to know what that other person wants, and what will sell them on what you’re offering, or buying.

So that’s a big part of being prepared, and well researched, but the other vital key to that is walking into any negotiation with more than one option. You need to have a variety of solutions to offer, because if your first approach doesn’t work, for whatever reason, you don’t want the negotiation to quickly fall apart.

If they don’t like the first pitch, you need to be ready to hit them with another one, something just as well thought out and aligned with their desires, instantly.

Aside from research and being well prepared, and willing to think and switch tactics on the fly, the other big part of negotiation is, of course, trust. It can be hard to make another person trust you, and believe in what you’re offering, the very first time you meet, so you have to be prepared to put in those hard yards, to build trust over time – as I eventually did with Kerry – and if you do that well, then persistence, combined with preparation, will always pay off.

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