Editor's Note: We asked America's top negotiating pros--Kenneth Feinberg, Kevin O'Leary, Leigh Steinberg, Richelieu Dennis, and Eugene Driker--to share their haggling tips and strategies so you can ramp up your dealmaking game.
It all starts with putting yourself in the other guy's shoes. Kenneth Feinberg says the most important thing you can do before stepping into a negotiation is to learn as much about your opponent as possible, so you know what he or she really wants. "What is the other person looking for in a negotiation? How do you accommodate your adversary? An effective negotiator says to himself, 'If I'm the other side, what do they want to hear from me?' Try to project in your negotiating style, and in your terms and conditions, things that the other side will find inviting."
Feinberg has waded through more than his fair share of terms and conditions. For decades, he has negotiated and determined the size of settlement payouts for victims of such tragedies as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Virginia Tech massacre, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, and the Boston Marathon bombing. Even in cases with hundreds of thousands of claimants, he has been regarded as a fair, trustworthy arbiter who is adept at working with people living through their worst nightmare.
Doing the hard work of immersing yourself in the details of the dispute is the key, Feinberg says, to his success. "You've got to master the facts," he says. "You've got to know more than your adversary. You've got to know all there is to know about the negotiation. It's about sheer competence and thoroughness." Feinberg uses the information he gathers to get into the heads of the parties involved in a negotiation.
The first settlement Feinberg ever worked on came in 1984, when Jack B. Weinstein, a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York, appointed him to a team of three charged with mediating a class-action lawsuit filed by Vietnam veterans against the makers of Agent Orange. The veterans sought damages for ailments they believed they suffered because of their exposure to the herbicide during the war. For years, Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and five other Agent Orange manufacturers had denied responsibility, insisting it caused no physical harm to humans. The veterans wanted $1.2 billion in damages. The seven companies told Feinberg they were willing to pay a collective total of just $25,000.