1. The Five Stages of Negotiation 1- Preparation: Without preparation, there’s no result. Preparation increases your flexibility, imposes rigor and forces you to follow certain automatic patterns, or basic negotiation skills, that get better with time and practice. The more automatic patterns you have at your disposal, the more ready you’ll be to face the many unforeseen events so typical of negotiations. In this stage, you need to define and note down which are the points that need to be discussed, the milestones you want to reach in the negotiation, the concessions you are willing to make and the limits below which you are not willing to go. 2- Exploration: This stage involves researching, exploring and establishing a dialogue with the other part, so it can be considered part of the pre-negotiation process. Because in order to propose (stage number 3) your first need to know what the other part wants. 3- Proposal: A proposal is a provisional offer that one of the parts makes. The proposal gives an answer to the following question: What does the other part want and in which order of priority? 4- Exchange: This is a key moment in the negotiation, where it is of utmost important being able to listen and interpret every word the other part says in order to detect flexibility or weakness. 5- Agreement: The goal of every negotiation is to close a deal. The negotiation goes on until the very last second before an agreement is reached. Full Article - Stages Of Negotiation - From Preparation To Agreement