For the next forty minutes, Maya didn’t negotiate numbers. She used —repeating the last two or three words Viktor said. When he complained, "The IP transfer alone is a nightmare," she said softly, "A nightmare?" And he would spill more. She uncovered his real fear: not the price tag, but a public failure. If the acquisition looked hostile, the press would roast him, and his board would lose confidence.
The book provides several key strategies for implementing this approach, including: never split the difference by chris voss pdf better
Voss flips this on its head. He argues that a "Yes" is often meaningless. People say "Yes" to get you to go away, to appease you, or because they are confused. It is a fake commitment. For the next forty minutes, Maya didn’t negotiate numbers