Christopher Voss Quotes

Yes, negotiating is about money and the bottom line, but a lot of times, it's much more emotional and complex than that. Realizing that the economic outcome may not be the other party's top priority gives you more chips to play with and will enable you to achieve better results than you may have anticipated.

Relationships are negotiated and if you deal with ultimatums and authority all the time, then you're not going to get anywhere.

The only way to conduct an effective collaboration is to debate the things upon which you disagree. If one doesn't manage to bring the other around to his point of view, then whichever collaborator feels the most passionate about the thing being debated ought to get his way.

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

Negotiation is empathy. It's almost trite to say that if you can't put yourself in the seat of the other person you're speaking with, you're not going to do well. It's not about being a bully, not about making offers people can't refuse.

If your first objective in the negotiation, instead of making your argument, is to hear the other side out, that's the only way you can quiet the voice in the other guy's mind. But most people don't do that.

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.

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

I think two people with strong points of view can appreciate each other even more.

You cannot just dictate at negotiations. You must also listen.

You can never in negotiations be totally predictable. The minute you’re predictable, they’re going to figure out how to take advantage.

We can argue and we can disagree, but we don’t need to poke our fingers in each other’s eyes in order to get our points across.

In peace, as there is more time to spare, the leaders are expected to persuade the rank and file, instead of commanding them.

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

I'm willing to sit down with anybody and have constructive criticism.

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.

I got really good at negotiating from a place of weakness.

You tend to relate to the other person better if you understand their professional needs.

The sweetest two words in any negotiation are actually, 'That's right.' Before you convince them to see what you're trying to accomplish, you have to say the things to them that will get them to say, 'That's right.'

When you expect to get into a negotiation, you expect to be faced by a guy that's going to attack you, a guy or gal that's going to attack or that they're going to try to get the best of you. Two-thirds of us, that makes us very defensive.

The key is that when we disagree, we really hear the other one out and agree that there is a more elegant solution than one of us 'winning.'

I have learned that in all negotiations nothing matters except the will to reach agreement.

Politics is not really different from marriage. You cannot get things done in your relationship if you tell your wife: Look, if you haven't made the bed and if you don't get the food on the table, I will go and just hire someone and you will become irrelevant. That is not how you make a marriage work.

You do not get what you want. You get what you negotiate.

During a negotiation, it would be wise not to take anything personally. If you leave personalities out of it, you will be able to see opportunities more objectively.