Are your negotiations working against the clock?

A former colleague of mine had a great saying about time keeping – “On time is late!” We all know people, whether they’re friends or work colleagues, where the concept of good time keeping seems to have passed them by. We either laugh it off or we get very irritated by the same old excuses: traffic, the alarm clock, someone else’s fault; lost keys etc.

We’ve all done it and whilst not wanting to come over all “holier than thou”, there are some serious implications of allowing lateness to affect your negotiations. Here are 3 tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of time pressures:

Tip 1: Don’t allow others to impose deadlines

You should be in charge of time, not them. Get into this mentality and extend deadlines if necessary to suit your needs. Don’t allow the fear of imposed timelines affect your deal.

Tip 2: Do your homework well in advance

Being forced to make key decisions without adequate information or knowledge is asking for trouble. However, if you’ve made the effort to do your research, plan for all eventualities and understand what a good deal looks like, then this takes a lot of pressure off you.

Tip 3: Be 15 minutes early not 1 minute early

Assume that your counterpart already has an opinion of your time management skills and how you respond to pressure. If they feel this is a weakness of yours because you’re always banging on about being “so busy”, then they will exploit the situation in their favour. Being early demonstrates you are in charge of your negotiations and you’ll create an impression of calmness and composure.

So, remember “On time is late” and take charge of your negotiations.