How do you know that your negotiating partner has concealed you?

Now you are negotiating with your client or your opponent for an important transaction. You can feel that your opponent has concealed you from something. Worse, he will even give you wrong information.

In many books on body language, there are various ways to identify whether the person in front of you is lying. For example, when they say “yes”, they shake their heads (rather than nod their heads) or they don’t Any eye contact.

However, research from the famous psychologist Paul Ekman shows that you are not only seeing whether your opponent is lying to you in terms of body language or facial expressions. You need to first establish a "baseline."

This "base line" means a series of questions that are not potentially stressful. You know that your opponent will tell you the truth. For example, similar to "It's hot today?", or other daily problems. When they are giving you some very direct answers, if they are looking at their feet, or when they are asked some very obvious questions, he is licking his mouth, then he is similar in your negotiations with you. Performance does not mean that he is lying.

When you want to see if someone is lying or concealing something from you, the point is to see if your opponent's facial expressions, the tone of the voice, the expression of the words, or the expression of body language suddenly change, especially when A sensitive topic was mentioned. Here is an example:

Seller: You just said that your budget is limited and we need to provide you with a discount, right?

Buyer: Right!

Seller: Well, if you can guarantee that you have a minimum quantity for each year, I think I can make sure that I make some concessions on the price. If you like this kind of commitment at least 4 times a year, can you guarantee it?

Buyer: We should be able to.

Seller: So can the first shipment start from the beginning of next month?

Seller: This thing... This should be achievable.

In the above conversation, the buyer is confident to answer the question of whether to discount. However, when asked further about whether he can guarantee the minimum quantity, he becomes less confident, such as the word “should” or “may”. When he is further required to ensure that orders are completed within a certain period of time, he becomes even more uncertain.

Assume that if the buyer can keep eye contact under such circumstances, and when asked if he can make a commitment to the minimum quantity, he suddenly avoids eye contact, which is a phenomenon that hides the facts.

When asked to fulfill his promise within a certain deadline, besides sounding uncertain, his lips are a little quiver and there are signs that he is not very confident about it. Obviously, he did not have any assurance in his mind when he answered.

However, even if someone changes his behavior or posture when asked about some stressful issues, there is no basis for assurance that the person is lying. We can only say that we suspect that this person is a bit indifferent, but we still cannot be sure that the person is lying. You need to ask more questions to different people in your opponent team at different times to capture more information and make conclusions.

Then, the more important question is actually "What is your opponent lying and concealing to you?" and "What should you do next in this negotiation?"

One of these methods is to find out the communication and negotiation with other people in your opponent team. If you negotiate with each other's position that they are not really serious about the various commitments they have given, then perhaps the best thing to do next is to walk away.