Customer Reviews

Negotiating Game Rev

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book does not present a "foolproof" way to negotiate. Instead it disects the negotiation process giving you an understanding of why negotiators act as they do, how you can control the negotiation and how to present your information to your advantage.
If you want to learn how to negotiate and are willing to spend time thinking about what is being taught, this book is the best.

Mr. Karrass' years of experience provide an excellent and credible background. In combination with the tapes, he portrays real-life examples of how he discovers the true motivations behind a sellers' needs, helps the seller reach those needs, and get a better all-around deal for himself in the process. Mr. Karrass truly seeks to improve the deal for both parties involved.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. The techniques apply to both personal and business life.

I am the CEO of a medical device company. I've bought and sold scores of companies, products and licenses. While I've done an awful lot of negotiating, I always want to learn how to do it better.

Unfortunately, this book didn't help me very much.

The book is extremely boring. It goes on an on, yet never lays out a coherent negotiating strategy. Every 20 pages or so, it lays out a complex chart that is impossible to follow, let alone understand. It provides many negotiating examples. But, most of them involve Purchasing Departments or country-to-country foreign policy-related negotiations.

In an attempt to make credible points, the author often quotes negotiating "research." Many of the research designs he cites are so subjective and uncontrolled that no reputable business journal would want to report on them. It doesn't really matter though since most of the conclusions the author pulls from this "research" are very obvious. The few ideas from the research that sound genuinely new and intriquing are rarely developed adequately as the book meanders on.

In its favor, the book stresses the need to aim high when negotiating. That's great advice. The book also notes how confident people usually make the best negotiators. The book also made an inriguing point about negotiating with aggressive parties. You want to alternate between being tough and soft, not just one or the other. That's a great point and, in a rare moment of glory, the book does a very good job of developing this point.

However, if you're gearing up for a big negotiation and you want to get some useful negotiating advice beforehand, you won't get it from this book.

Jeff

I initially started reading a 1970's version of the book while on vacation, but was unable to bring the book with me. The content is right on. I am pleased there is a new revised edition with modern day examples and analogies. I am purchasing several copies as gifts. I highly recommend it. For those shying away from the "self help" genre, make this an exception.

In this book Dr Karrass is discussing the principles of negotiating. There many things to take into account other than just power, even though power is obviously the most important single factor. Topics include the results of some experiments in negotiation, analysis of factors like who makes the concessions first, the role of motivation and sef-esteem, the importance of preparation, sources of negotiating power, perceived power vs real power, basic principles and some special cases of power, etc. The author has obviously given much thought to what makes a good negotiator. I recommend all of his books highly, starting with this as an introduction.

The author makes the point that negotiation is not just for the buyer and/or seller. It is for everybody. Husbands negotiate with wives. Children negotiate with their parents. Workers negotiate with their bosses. To be an effective negotiator, you need to know yourself and your wants, your opponents wants and needs, and organize and plan your negotiation. In this way, you can learn to have negotiations and agreements that satisfy the wants of both you and your opponent. Ineffective negotiators will not meet their needs and become unhappy.
This is a great book to read to learn more about yourself and how you rationalize your decision making. Negotiation is indeed a great tool in everyday life (home and business). I commend the author for writing on this topic. This is a rare book that will help the reader with both his family and business. The only negative is the author putting much too much focus on theories when simple stories would suffice. This is why I gave this book a four star.

This book does a good job covering the strategies that can be used (and are used) in "hard-ball style" negotiation. I've read Bargaining for Advantage as well and I think it gives a better overview of the different types of negotiation/bargaining that people encounter in their every day lives. It more or less groups the types of negotiations into 4 main categories (personal relationships, business relationships, casual encounters and business transactions). The Negotiating Game covers the strategies that are used in business transactions, where the stakes are very high and there is unlikely to be a long term relationship.

I did find this book quite useful as the explanations are very clear, the writing is smooth and interesting, and the examples are good. I would recommend this book after reading Bargaining for Advantage to get a more in depth understanding of the kind of "I win, you lose" negotiation that people are likely to encounter not only in business, but also in negotiated personal purchases and the like (think: used car purchase).

This book is excellent and really gets to the heart of the very nature of negotion. It is both insightful, and practical. I reccomend this book strongly and give my compliments to Chester L. Karrass!