99 Negotiating Strategies: Tips, Tactics & Techniques Used by Wall Street's Toughest Dealmakers

A Mixed Bag, Depends on your goalI bought this book for easy reading on a company retreat. It wasn’t quite what I expected. The book is a collection of 99 “tips and tricks” for negotiation that seem stuck in the single-deal, zero-sum negotiation style. That’s very different than the problem-solving and “win win or no deal” styles. This is probably best for a professional negotiator, brought in to support one party against another, where both dislike each other and will never work together again. A divorce and a criminal “plea bargain” are probably the two most common examples. The book refers to the other party as the “target” and includes advice like, in chapter 15 “take charge of any written agreement”, which includes this gem. “… a shrewd drafter will insert dozens of additional terms into the agreement, in the process making them sound as boring and unimportant as possible.” This is after the basic terms are roughed out, inserting terms the other side did not discuss, in the hope they fail to read them or are so exhausted by the process they simply concede to them. The implication is that if you don’t, the other side will, so take charge and insist you draft the document. Rosen even defends this practice, arguing that people simply do not have time to argue over every clause in a standard agreement, and who is to say what the standard is, anyway? So you fill out with your standards and hope the other side doesn’t read it. If they do, they can object and re-negotiate.Writing that I feel more than a little nauseous. Those ideas … that isn’t me. That isn’t my company. It isn’t … us. Our business aims not for only repeat customers, but customers as an extended sales force. Rosen stops short of recommending lying, but he does suggest bluffing, and indicates that a little exaggeration and bluffing is expected in every negotiation.Again, not me. Not us. But there might be a reason or two to read it anyway — for example, to understand when the techniques are being used against you by someone else who thinks zero-sum. It’s enough to make me hope for a second edition that includes how to counter the techniques when they are used against you, such as “never recognize concessions” (chapter 50) or brining in an end-game bad cop (chapter 8).The books has some plusses. At sixteen bucks US, it is not overly expensive. If you want price per word, it isn’t really cheap, as the book is ninety-nine “chapters”, the overwhelming majority of which are one to five paragraphs, each on a single page, usually taking up less than half of that page. At 12 words a line, 15 lines a page, that is around 17,000 words — shorter than the requirement for a novella. Given the price, though, I wonder if this is a plus. Each chapter is incredibly easy to read. You could read it waiting in line at the doctors office, or in-between meetings, pick it up, immerse yourself, and get out. The book is available for a lower price point on kindle.The book does have a few additional small problems that really put me on the fence between two and three stars. The formatting makes it look like it is a home-published book, but, as it turns out, it does have a real publisher. Part of why I bought the book was name recognition of the author, but I eventually realized “David Rosen” is the name of a major character on the TV Show Scandal, which is probably what I recognized. Despite sounding super impressive (“He has handled hundreds of federal and state cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in multiple courts and jurisdictions”), his Bio contains almost no verifiable facts, such as where he went to school, (law school? Member of the bar? We don’t know) what companies he has worked for as an employee, or the name of his company if he is independent. It also begins with “…described by his peers as one of the toughest negotiators in the Unite States”, which is entirely impossible to verify - we don’t even have a single name! Rosen brags in his introduction that his book, unlike others, is not full of “war stories”, but a half dozen that actually showed the techniques in use would have brought some real richness to the work. For that matter, if he had found a way to structure them into headings, then split the chapters up, each heading could have a war story at the beginning of a failure and one at the end of a success using the techniques. Finally, the author bangs on about “wall street” firms without really differentiating them in any way — did he work with investment banks, brokers, banking institutions, pension funds, mutual funds? We have no idea. The idea that he worked on Wall Street seems to be the credibility. In chapter 45 the author says that explaining “prospect theory” would take too long, you can search for it, but here is how to apply it. In chapter 46, the author makes an argument then says that “studies are available online” to support it, without even telling you what to search for!So should you buy the book or not?if you are doing zero-sum negotiations, or you have the money and you’d like a cataloged list that isn’t too worried about ethics but seems to stop short of criminal behavior, this book could be a fit for you. I wrote “seems to stop short”, as the author is quick to write that some professionals may have legal or ethical requirements (such as a realtor’s requirement to disclose known problems), so if a piece of advice would cause you to break the law … don’t do that one. He does not elaborate further.On the other hand, if you want a book that includes a full gamut of techniques, including problem-solving and win-win and this zero-sum, and you can find a copy, the McGraw-Hill 36-hour negotiation course covers this well. It is out of print and I have no way to profit from sales, no conflict of interest.The book is not junk, it has potential, and it could be fit for some people. In the end, I gave it three stars because even if, by now, it sounds like two stars for you, by reading it you notice, for example, the appeal to authority fallacy (chapter 46 as mentioned above), you could become a better negotiator. If that’s your goal, I’d suggest this book is three stars. Perhaps not the first book to read in this genre, but is had a certain charm, it’s an easy read, and it might be good to know when the “snowball fight technique” is used against you! That is chapter 81, it’s when you break the list of disputed items into an overwhelming list in order to keep the target off-balance. :-)

Easy to read and reference. Finished it on a 2 hour flight. Would recommend to friends, family and co workers

Teeming with useful strategies, “99 Negotiation Strategies” is a valuable aid to anyone in law and business.The book is short and easy to read. When I liked a chapter, I snapped a picture of it on my phone camera because most chapters are only one page each.David Rosen runs the gamut with his advice, from deep psychological strategies to exploiting social quirks to quick tips.Collectively, these 99 strategies emphasize preparation. Successful negotiations aren’t an accident. The more planning you do, the more likely you are to succeed.

I have to say, this is the best book on negotiation tactics and strategies I've ever read, and that's saying a lot. It really is a complete playbook of excellent ideas for negotiating in any situation. The tips tell you how to restructure they way you present your ideas, how to recruit members of the opposing side to help you sell your positions, how to overcome objections, how to favorably reframe both your position and the position of the adversary....just on and on. I recognized some but I would say the majority of them are ones I hadn't use and wasn't aware of. I'm thrilled. Hats off to the author for sharing his methods. This is a superb book for anyone who buys, sells, or has to solve conflicts or disputes.

It will transform the way you negotiate. I bought this book because I needed to sharpen my deal-making skills. I needed to 10X my outcomes and I can’t afford to make mistakes or waste time. I heard about David Rosen and thought, why not? He's the king of Wall Street. Here's my take. THIS IS THE BEST TACTICAL GUIDE TO NEGOTIATING I HAVE EVER SEEN. I have never heard of Prospect Theory, or "behavioral mimicry," or most of the dozens of strategies here. He explains them so simply - what his tricks were, and how to out-negotiate others using it. This book should be $30 or $40. The strategies are clever to the point of being off the charts. I’m not a review poster, but this one deserves it. UNBELIEVABLE BOOK.

Rosen is concise. There’s no superfluous “fluff” In this treatise (superfluous fluff is redundant: But Alas!!! That’s the point), but his brevity doesn’t detract from the compelling content. I wish it was a little more robust. . . MEH!!! Four stars all day.

Although this book offers little help in negotiating with friends, it has the potential to offer help in formal negotiations. It will most likely require some experience to employ the tactics successfully. If you commit some of the tactics to memory, it may help you in negotiating an employment contract offer or salary.

I bought this book and then sat back and flipped through it. Then I put one of the tips to use and guess what! I closed the deal! I used #45, which is based on a psychological theory I've never heard of. The tip explains when to stress the value of gains, when to stress the risk of losses, when to talk about the benefit of certainty, and when to talk about how the deal will put the customer in a superior position versus his or her competitors. That helped me understand why I couldnt get one of my clients to make the deal. I was just pitching it wrong. I'm impressed.

No lo he leído aún pero asumo que es bueno

This was worth reading. It wasn't the greatest book but the book definitely had a few points that made the book well worth reading.

The tactics and strategies were spot on. I now recognise that many had been used on me!Most books on negotiation rely to much and draw on the personal experience of the author, none of which have great relevance. This book goes straight to the technique. I’ll use it for excellent reference.

Somewhat superficial

Should have less introductions on each strategy described and more practical real examples in different deals from other segments negotiations.