Whilst browsing the internet I came across a number of articles on negotiating and having read several began to wonder who these people were negotiating with and why were they bothering to negotiate at all. I was amazed at the language used in the articles and the suggestion that you would want to negotiate with someone you know is going to con you, stitch you up or rip you off. What does the person or organisation you distrust have that is worth the effort of negotiation, it can only be a crook or assassin you want to bump of the spouse or burn the business down for the insurance money.

Why would you want to negotiate with a business or person you know will not stick to any agreement reached and you will be forever employing lawyers to check the small print every time you order or sell to them and you know there will be a dispute over something or other and you may never or you will have to wait ages to get paid or recover your money.

There are only two reasons why you need to negotiate: You are in dispute or you want to do a deal. If you are in dispute there are a number of steps you have to take before you can begin negotiations, the first is reconciliation, the second is communication, the third is negotiation — sounds very much like being married.

The majority of us negotiate because we want to do a deal that is beneficial to all the parties involved. Negotiation is about compromise not setting up barriers that need defending, if you do not want to compromise then don’t bother negotiating, tell the other party you have no interest in doing business with them.

If you are interested in doing deals and deals is what makes your business profitable then you have to negotiate but, before you pick up the telephone to arrange a meeting make sure you are talking to the right party for this deal. Research is imperative, make sure you understand why your business needs this deal and what affect the deal will have on your business, is there another supplier/customer you could do a better deal with? Make sure you understand what you can negotiate away and what cannot be negotiated.

Once you understand why you want or need the deal go and find out everything you can about the target, ask around, check the newspapers, magazines, contacts in other businesses you know that have dealings with the target, your bank manager, is the target under money or time pressure, do they pay their bills etc. You would be surprised what little snippet of information may clinch a deal.

When negotiations begin never ever give away what you know about your target and never impart your business problems to the target. During the negotiations and if you have done your research you will hear the fear you can exploit that will clinch the deal and nine times out of ten it has nothing to do with price. It may be delivery times, stocking levels, storage, expertise, marketing, something that may be small and insignificant to you but extremely important to your target.

How do you find the fear? You ask questions and let the target talk and talk, never interrupt, never answer for the target, never show how clever you are by pre-empting, make notes and listen, do not be afraid to rephrase a question to dig further, leave a little space between the target ending their answer and you starting the next question, you never know what they might add. Next time you watch a news programme listen to the reporter, if they are any good their questions will find the answers and if they know there is a little more to come listen for the silence.

In summary make sure you know why you want to negotiating, carry out in-depth research, prepare, ask questions and don’t be afraid to say No. Never confuse Negotiation for Selling they are two different skills.

A photo frame is a very adaptable gift which is why there is such a wide variety of them available, including personalised ones and engraved photo frames which can be given as wedding presents, birthday gifts or at more or less any other occasion.

A nice occasional photo frame can be an excellent wedding gift. Weddings are about memories, so giving a wedding photo frame means that those special “Kodak moments” captured during the day – be it at the reception, the wedding itself or the official photographs taken by hired professionals – can be enjoyed in a lovely presentation for years to come.

Since the proliferation of digital cameras, photographs are only rarely developed and printed off en masse, so presents such as photo albums are largely unneeded these days as they are simply uploaded online to social networking sites or photo sharing services such as Flickr and Facebook.

People still like to have pictures at home, however, and a wedding frame gift allows the happy couple to pick out their favourite shot of the big day to keep in pride of place on the mantelpiece and share with each other and their friends and family. Simply printing off a digital photograph and popping it into a generic frame simply does not do justice to the occasion, so a proper wedding themed photo frame makes the activity far more special.

A wedding gift with a photo from the big day is a meaningful and personal gift that can be treasured as a keepsake and displayed proudly for many years afterwards. Some places offer engraving or further personalisation services, or you can get autograph wedding frames to be signed by the bride and groom with their sentiments, or even for the guests to leave notes and congratulations messages on the event. You can also get engagement and even wedding anniversary frames which can make a lovely regular gift so the couple ends up with a beautiful themed gallery charting their relationship over the years!

Photo frames are very versatile as presents and can be given for almost any occasion, from weddings and engagements to birthdays, christenings and graduations. Don’t settle for just a frame, either; you can also get photo trinket boxes, themed gift albums and other photo gifts which can be themed and personalised to any special day or event. Even better, these presents are often inexpensive when compared to impersonal gifts like flowers or chocolates, as well as showing a far greater amount of thought and care in selecting the gift.

Do you frequently or periodically make essentially the “same” presentation or speech? Perhaps, as Human Resources Director in a large organization, you regularly welcome new employees. Maybe you, as a department head in your marketing firm, initiate the weekly meeting of your group. You may, as City Engineer, routinely brief the City Council at its monthly meeting. As Engineering Dean, I frequently welcomed groups of high school students and their parents who were visiting our and other colleges of engineering to help them decide what university they may want to attend.

The good news about these apparently routine presentations is that they are easy, that is, relative to some of the critical one-of-a-kind speeches we also prepare for and present and sometimes dread. The bad news about the apparently routine presentations is also that they are easy. And, therefore, we may not give them proper attention, we get careless, we lose our edge, the audience knows it, and we fall short of the intent of oour communication.

More specifically, when we give the same presentation over and over, we may inadvertently fall into these traps:

1) Verbal graffiti: “Ah,” “you know,” “um,” and “he/she goes,” are examples. This happens because we are not thinking, not focusing-we are on autopilot. Think you don’t do this? Maybe you don’t, but why not verify? The next time you make that routine presentation, unobtrusively place an audio recorder on the lectern or table and, at your leisure, listen to yourself.

2) Negative body language or distracting behavior: Examples are holding our arms across our chest as we speak, which many interpret as your being autocratic and not open to input; failing to make eye contact with all portions of the audience; and excessive fiddling with our eye glasses.

3) No enthusiasm: You used the same words and sentences so many times that you just can’t get up for it. For example, I once worked in an organization where the chief executive, whenever he spoke and whoever he spoke to, always began with an expression like “I am pleased to be here”-got a little old.

For some of us who give that frequent speech to what is always a new audience, please consider the applicability of this advice: We get only one chance to make a first impression. Let’s leverage those “one chance” speaking opportunities.

Some thoughts for improving your “stump speech”:

1) Listen to a recording of your current presentation, as suggested above, or ask a colleague or friend to critique your speech. Identify strengths and weaknesses. Build on the former and fix the latter.

2) Commit to minimizing verbal graffiti. You don’t have to give a presentation to do this. Work at eliminating meaningless word and sounds in you every day conversations.

3) Find or develop a new opening each time, such as a story, metaphor, quote, or example. Yes, this requires extra effort. One benefit of that effort: thinking deeper about your audience and what you want them to learn and/or do. Using a new opening also adds freshness to your comments.

As stated by writer and author, Patricia T. O’Connor, “An audience is a terrible thing to lose.” That is exactly what happens when your audience senses that you are simply going through the motions. Instead, make them feel special. While you have presented the message many times, for them it should be as though it is the first time.