Negotiating

The book I read to research this post was Negotiating For Dummies which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. The author is an agent who represents actors including Elizabeth Montgomery. This is one of the best books I have read on this subject and it includes sections on things like dealing with your children and also an awkward boss among other things. When you think of it we negotiate as part of everyday life and often a lot more frequently than we realise. One important point is you should remain true to yourself and set limits across which you adamantly refuse to go. It's also important to research your client and try and find out what he wants and try to accommadate him but at the same time get what you want. This is called win - win negotiating. Something I read in another book is a good negotiation shouldn't necessarily be unpleasant for either party and you should both be willing to do business again. It's also important you set out your case honestly and explain why you won't do certain things. I really enjoyed reading this book and with the author having a background in acting it was nice to see he used lots of examples of negotiating in films. Apparently the FBI uses the films, Dog Day Afternoon & The Taking Of Pelham One, Two, Three as part of their training for recruits in negotiating. The former is based on a true story and features Al Pacino as a bank robber who takes hostages and a negotiator has to try and negotiate their release. The latter film is about a hostage situation that wasn't handled very well.