Christopher Voss Quotes

I like to think of sales as the ability to gracefully persuade, not manipulate, a person or persons into a win-win situation.

The Iranians and Persians are excellent at the art of negotiation.

Diplomacy is the art of letting somebody else have your way.

We've got the children so we have to deal with each other because we have to deal with children's problems, you know, and our own problems. But some days it's fine, and then some days we just are at each other's throat.

Between finishing emails, loading the fridge, unloading the dishwasher, getting our son to eat his chicken nuggets and my dog to swallow her pill, it takes approximately 32 days for my husband and I to complete a discussion and 46 to wrap up a fight.

There's no road map on how to raise a family: it's always an enormous negotiation.

Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.

There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.

We're all negotiators.

So much of life is a negotiation - so even if you're not in business, you have opportunities to practice all around you.

My kids always say to me, 'Can we watch TV?' I say, 'Absolutely!' because then I can get something done. But then they say, and I wait for it, 'But can you watch with us?' My moment of freedom vanishes. So not only do I not think TV's that great and I hate sitting in front of it, but I have to with them.

Arguments, like children, should be like the subject that begets them.

The whole concept of negotiating is intimidating to many people.

You have to listen to adversaries and keep looking for that point beyond which it's against their interests to keep on disagreeing or fighting.

I never satisfied that kid but I think he and I have made a deal now.

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

The capability of negotiating... is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

I've learned that in order to achieve what I wanted, it made more sense to negotiate than to defend the autonomy of my work by pounding my fist on the table.

The only sound approach to collective bargaining is to work out an agreement that clarifies the rights and responsibilities of the parties, establishes principles and operates to the advantage of all concerned.

Soft words and hard arguments.

Negotiations can create conditions that can lead to solutions.

I'm a compromiser and a maneuverer. I try to get something. That's the way our system works.

Negotiating is like trying to pick up mercury with a fork.

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

Negotiation is not trading. Negotiation is creating new and original solutions.