I’ve seen some negotiations recently that have stalled out, which has been both frustrating and a terrible result for both. Neither party wanted to budge, and the deal ended up stalling through people not willing to take a risk to say what they wanted.

Negotiating is one of the most primary skills of business. It isn’t easy, but once you get the hang of it, it can help in almost every area of your life. Here are my 3 tips to help you negotiate like a boss, using the sport of Judo.

Negotiating is very much like the sport of Judo. It isn’t about winning or losing per se, but about finding the best way to execute the negotiation.

In Judo, a throw is separated into three separate and equally important parts; Kuzushi (off balancing the opponent), Tzukuri (fitting or entering) and Kake (execution).

Kuzushi is the first and foremost element of Judo. It involves letting your opponent in a way that you anticipate, and being able to use this anticipation to put them in a slightly less advantageous position, though they may not be aware of it.

Kuzushi in negotiating can be done by giving a little to get a little. For instance, if you’re negotiating pay, you may want to mention a pay rate for a comparable role in a different industry. As long as you can get a response that you can anticipate and follow it up, this is all part of Kuzushi.

Tzukuri is an interesting concept in terms of coming up with an offer.

The term in Judo comes from the fact that with every throw, a single moment of decision making needs to occur post Kuzushi where the practitioner says “I’m going to do this throw now”. This is an interesting concept when it comes to exploring the negotiation process.

In negotiation, a decision has to be made as to when to give an offer to the party you are negotiating with. The decision point generally must be made on instinct, and if the moment is lost due to hesitation it may not happen again. Tzukuri is akin to the offer in a negotiation, an all in moment where you simply “go for it”.

So, we’ve made it this far, we’ve given the question, made the decision for the offer and now we are ready to execute.

Kake is the moment when it all counts. Of course, it is the set up and entry that are important, and the work you put in behind the scenes is what you get out of it. Kake is the same as “closing the deal”. Very rarely will you have a deal not close with good set up and offering, but it can happen if you back out or hesitate. Often this is due to a lack of confidence or faith in ability, but ultimately this is the moment for the deal to happen.

Ultimately, the sport of judo and negotiation come down to the same principle. Nothing happens, then everything happens. How you get there is up to you, but as long as you think of things in terms of set up, entry and execution, you