Imagine being dubbed, “The Worlds Best Negotiator” or being credited with coining the term, “Win-Win”. Wouldn’t you love to be that guy? I know I would! Herb Cohen is that guy. He’s negotiated everything we’ve all read about in the news since the 70’s! He’s taught negotiation skills to presidents and been involved in more contract negotiations that anyone on the planet! Herb Cohen is the world’s foremost expert on negotiation skills. Understanding negotiation principals is a critical skill that we all need to understand.
Herb Cohen is coming to New Jersey in September. He will be teaching negotiation skills to hundreds of business professionals at an upcoming Move Ahead 1 business development seminar.
Here is an excerpt from a recent NY Times article titled, “For Champions of Haggling, No Price Tag Is Sacred “, featuring the one and only negotiation skills guru Herb Cohen.
“Ours is one of the few countries where haggling is not generally accepted, but this was not always so, said Herb Cohen, author of the best seller “You Can Negotiate Anything.” Remember Manhattan, the Native Americans and some beads?
“Americans used to have great reputations as negotiators,” said Mr. Cohen, who in his career as a negotiator helped develop the F.B.I. hostage-negotiating program and was an adviser on terrorism to President Jimmy Carter. “But after World War II, we had a virtual monopoly on almost everything.” So Americans no longer had to bargain. That can make it confusing to people visiting the United States.
I remember when my sister’s soon-to-be father-in-law visited from Israel for her wedding. He was buying dress shoes at Nordstrom and tried to get the price down. It did not work. Our family often chuckled at that story, but the last laugh may be on us. Ms. Greenberg said that department stores are not off-limits to haggling. But a little subtlety might help. “Ask if the item is going on sale soon — or just came off sale — and whether you can have the lower price,” she said. Often, the saleswoman has coupons behind the counter. “I’ll ask, ‘do you have a coupon for me?’ and they’ll pull them out,” she said. Or if you have an expired coupon, sometimes you’ve got to beg, and say ‘C’mon, can’t you honor this?’ Sometimes they don’t have the authority and sometimes they do.” It might help, as Mr. Cohen said, to see yourself as negotiating, rather than haggling, which has an ugly sound and has the connotation of someone willing to wrestle for that last dime.
“You don’t have to be a phony,” Mr. Cohen said. “You can tell the truth. Come in in a genial way, smiling with a low-key pose of calculated incompetence. The key words are, ‘Can you help me?’”
