Becoming a better negotiator is all about focus and practice.
When you really focus on the negotiation process, things that you never saw before will jump right out at you. The more you practice, the better you will get.
Use every negotiation as an opportunity to focus and practice. And after each one, ask yourself five simple questions.
1. How good, in retrospect, was my guess as to the location of the other party’s Least Acceptable Settlement (LAS)?
2. Which negotiating approaches, strategies, or tactics really worked well?
3. What could I have done better?
4. What did I learn from this negotiation?
5. What will I do differently in my next negotiation as a result of what I learned from this one?
Focus, practice, and learn from your experiences, and you will become a great negotiator.