Ours is a systemic approach to negotiation, includes of course, but goes quite beyond the traditional tactical vision of negotiation.
Though it is obvious that an effective negotiator must be persuasive at the table, it is also evident that unless she brings to the table a value proposition that in addition of being beneficial to her, is at least acceptable to the other party, it does not matter how persuasive she is, she will not achieve a sustainable agreement.
That is why we also understand negotiation as having the creative and innovative skills to build an optimal, or at least acceptable, value offer. Therefor we spend a lot of energy and effort in this particular task: Bringing the best possible value offer to the table.
We also understand that both our negotiation capacity at the table, and our capability to build a great value offer, depend intrinsically on the context which surround the negotiation. That is why we know that the negotiation process begins long before sitting at the table. With this understanding we also invest ourselves in finding ways in which we can change the context to our advantage. First, by strategically finding ways in which we can increase our power at the negotiation table. Second, by finding additional resources that may allow us to create a better value proposition both for ourselves and our counterpart.
Finally, even if we understand that we will never have all the information necessary to create a complete frame of understanding to support our decision making processes, we spend a great effort in identifying the information we will need to acquire to have a deep understanding of the three fundamental aspects of a negotiation: The tactics, the value offer, and the context (the strategies).