Negotiation Keys

From an article in the FT:

Key points
1- Make sure you know who is your potential “high-value” player, which is the person who will place the most value on the deal.
2- Find the decision makers and make sure your they agree with you, then they will sell you from the inside.
3- Make sure that all the people who carry influence are part of the negotiation
4- Getting things going in the right direction are more important than fighting about a few points at the end, take a lesson from the Japanese, by the time you have your close meeting the deal is already won or lost.
5- Make sure you have the right agent by watching for conflicts of interest.
6- Remember others who might not be part of the deal, but may need to later approve the deal, like regulators etc.
7- Know who the big boys are and work with them first before you let smaller players in. Once the biggest players agree then let the smaller parties come aboard.