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Different styles of negotiations.

First of all, I want to give some advice to negotiations. Prepare thoroughly before the negotiations and be sure to make your position clear during the opening stage. Avoid interrupting. Accept emotional and aggressive tactics with patience and calmness. Impatience, toughness and emotion during the negotiations should be met with calmness, patience and consistency.

Russian style.

Russian negotiating teams are often made up of experienced managers whose style can be like a game of chess, with moves planned in advance. Wanting to make compromisies may be soon as a sign of weakness. Negotiations are demanding and may become emotional. Russian negotiator banging his or her fist on the table of leaving the room. This tactics are designed to make it difficult for you to concentrate.

German style.

German managers place great weight on the clarity of the subject matter and get to the point quickly. Negotiations are formal and direct. German managers speak their mind. Excessive enthusiasm or compliments are rare in german business. You should give a thorough and detailed presentation with an emphasis on objective information.

American style

When negotiating partners meet, the emphasis is on small talk and smiling. There is a liberal use of a sense of humour that is more direct than it is in the UK. Informality is the rule this pleasant attitude continues in the negotiation itself. USA negotiators usually attach little importance to status, titles, formalities and protocol. They communicate in an informal and direct on a first-name basis. Their manner is relaxed and casual.

Spanish style

During negotiations your counterparts may interrupt each other or even you. It is quite common in Spain for this to happen in the middle of a sentence. The discussion is likely to be lively. In negotiations, Spanish business people rely on quick thinking and spontaneous ideas rather than careful preparation. It may appear that everybody is trying to put his or her point across at once. That can make negotiations in Spain intense and lengthy but also enjoyable creative.