Negotiators are people. And they come in as many different flavours as people do. Some are tough and competitive, others are more engaging and collaborative. And different situations demand different styles: sometimes your best approach to a negotiation is to be tough, to be ruthless and to be, or at least to appear to be, absolutely uncompromising. Other times the reverse is true.
The best negotiators can flex between these styles, but even the best have a natural style, to which they default, and at which they excel. And so there is huge value in stepping back and recognising what each negotiation needs at what stage. Then you can either adopt the best style yourself, or potentially choose the most suitable negotiator in your team to get you the best outcomes, both short and long term.
Competitive: Use a competitive (tough) style when the long-term relationship is less important than the immediate result, where you have, or can engineer a position of power, where the negotiables are few (it’s mainly price or equivalent) and the chance for a win-win is low.
Collaborative: Use a more collaborative style when there are many ways to get to a deal, when there is an opportunity to significantly grow (rather than just slice up) the pie, when there is a more even balance of power and when your counterpart appears willing and able to talk collaboratively.