Propose

If they signal at this stage, you can respond. If they have no proposal of their own, it is your time to make a proposal. It does not hurt to allow the other party to propose their solution first. It will often cause them to give away concessions too early. It will give us a mirror into their mind, it will give us glimpses of what they are thinking. It will nearly always show up small cracks in their authority or power through which we can later drive the wedge of careful questions.

If the other party presents their position first, you have two choices. You can either accept their position and settle for less than you should. Or you can do what you must do, and that is to offer your counter-proposal.

In many cases their proposal and your response will not be enough to reach agreement. The likelihood is that there will still be a considerable distance between what they want and what you have counter-proposed. The next few words will make or break you, and those words have to be words that bargain.