Harvey Mackay Quotes

The first principle of contract negotiations is don't remind them of what you did in the past - tell them what you're going to do in the future.

Never make too good of a deal. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but the deals that are too good of a deal for you in the long run will end up hurting you. A lot of people in our business don't realize that. They think their job is to go in a room and negotiate the highest price.

When you negotiate a deal, you clearly know a lot about the other person.

Oftentimes, the best negotiations result in a deal that benefits both parties. There are times when you simply want to go for the jugular, but often, you want the other person to feel pleased with the outcome, even if you are the clear victor.

Donald Trump knows how to use leverage in negotiations.

Any seasoned deal maker will tell you that spontaneous negotiation's a bad strategy; the ad hoc approach will leave you ripped-off, busted, conned, stiffed, outsmarted and generally holding the shitty end of the stick.

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.

I have a reputation in my professional work, negotiating contracts, where I've gone into deals where other people haven't closed the deal, and I've been able to get it done.

You should get as close to the power when you're pitching something. I got my two biggest breaks with the man who owned CBS and the guy that owned Paramount, because I was dealing with the guy who would say yes or no.

I'm not chasing money, so I'm not looking at just trying to stretch out a deal artificially just to have a certain number.

What is negotiation but the accumulation of small lies leading to advantage?

It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

Certainly it is much easier to think about negotiating and having deals when there is a singular represented point of view. That pretty much is a given.

Whenever I do a deal I always have the right of approval.

In any negotiation, my goal is to be the most unreasonable person in the room.

We always find that taking a fairly hard-line position means our membership gets the best deal possible.

When you sit around with a Britisher, he usually gets 80 percent of the deal

That’s the trick in any negotiation. Getting to yes means getting the other party satisfied that its interest are being met sufficiently…. You both got to get something out of it that your prepared to fight for at home.

All the sharky elements of Hollywood are similar to sharky elements in Silicon Valley. It's obviously different, but the deals are the same. And you get hot, then you're not.

When people are uncomfortable - and many people are when they have to negotiate - they start rambling as a way to fill the vacuum of silence. Some of the strongest negotiators I know just sit back and listen. The less they engage, the more likely the other person is to slip up and offer information they otherwise would have kept guarded.

In most negotiations, you can't attribute success or failure in negotiations to one side.

The macro of any negotiation is that the only time you can cut a deal is when both sides are hurting. If either side is - is well and feeling happy, you can't get a deal. Then they go for victory. You need - if they're willing to settle for things the other side can live with, it's because they're hurting a little bit.

I had a couple of agents, but then I went on my own. I thought I could negotiate my own deals and it was probably my biggest mistake.

I've done a lot of deals, and I'm skilled at negotiating, managing personalities, and getting parties to the table.

If we say to the E.U. our backstop position is that we will be the vassal state, why should the E.U. make any effort to make any arrangement other than us to be a vassal state?