"Tough" or competitive bargaining techniques include making high initial demands; maintaining those high level demands throughout the course of the negotiation; making few (and small) concessions; and, adhering to a high level of aspiration for your own side.

Competitive negotiators gather as much information from their competitors as they can; give as little information about their own position as possible; bluff, mislead; and threaten retaliation if the other side does not comply.

We'll discuss why you might not want to bargain competitively in later posts. The purpose of this short post is to help the more cooperative bargainer deal with a tough guy.

Competitive negotiators:

1. sub-divide concessions by dividing issues into their smallest possible parts,
offering concessions only on the sub-parts;
2. make ambiguous or hypothetical offers that they can later disown;
3. demand principled justifications for the competitive bargainer's positions; and,
4. respond to intransigence with intransigence, cooperation with cooperation. 

Once you've worn the competitive bargainer down, the following questions will help you turn the negotiation into a more cooperative endeavor:

• what does your opponent think a "fair" solution to the problem might be
• which issues are most important to your opponent and which less or unimportant
• how would your opponent react to his own proposal if he were on your side of the table
• what are the intangible costs and hidden business costs of continuing the dispute or failing to close the deal
• what would a future without the dispute or with the deal in place look like

The greatest mistake of every young negotiator is to respond to competitive bargaining moves by offering concessions. The "tit for tat" games we engaged in on the playground are reflexively played out in every negotiation. You must respond to challenge with strength and resolve. The competitive bargainer will always out-negotiate his cooperative opponent unless the cooperative negotiator is prepared to push back when pushed.

The secret of the successful negotiator is her refusal to walk out of the room until the deal is done. Push back if need be, but do not cut and run.

For more on competitive and distributive bargaining, see Beyond Intractability's Knowledge Based Essay on the topic here.