Preparation is about being keenly aware of yourself, your opponent, and the competitive landscape.
For leverage as a negotiator, you need to own the corners. It’s all about positioning. If you start to negotiate without having done your research, you’ll end up on the wrong side of the deal. For any negotiation, you need to observe and prepare before you open your mouth.
Preparation is important. Take Peyton Manning, for example. He once shared that he credited “over preparation” for much of his success in football. For Manning, preparation was about being keenly aware of himself, his opponent, and the competitive landscape. The same could be said of creating leverage in a negotiation.
As a talent agent, media attorney, and professor at USC Gould School of Law, I teach my students and clients how to gain leverage. My new book, TILT the Room, coming out in 2027, explains how you can use timing, influence,
Here are a few ways to overprepare so you can create leverage in your next negotiation.
1. Know who is on the field or in the room.
Before any negotiation, you need to know who’s in the room. Ask yourself: What makes that person tick? You need to know who you’re dealing with and what their behavior is like. What might they know and who do they know?
2. Understand their “negotiation personality.”
Once you know who’s in the room, you need to understand how that person operates. What’s their personality type in negotiations? I use a breakdown similar to Adam Grant’s business book, Give and Take.
Negotiation personality types can be broken down into users, takers, and opportunists on one side. Then, there are acommodators, givers, and “desperates” on the other side. In the middle sit more neutral personalities.
3. Get to know their wants and needs.
Once you know who is in the room and their personality type, research what the other person across from you wants and needs. It doesn’t matter whether you are negotiating a million-dollar deal or buying a car. Understanding the other side’s motives will improve the negotiation for both sides.
For example, if you walk on the car lot knowing that a certain brand of car has been sitting on the lot for a while, then the salesperson probably wants to get rid of it. If the car is in high demand, the salesperson probably won’t have a lot of wiggle room on price. Understanding their needs helps you as much as it helps them.
If you want to learn more, read about people, talk to others they have dealt with, and check their social media. Any insight you can get on what they want and need will help you negotiate.
4. Observe the details.
People think leverage is a big club. Usually, it’s a small thing that shifts the negotiation. That’
Observe what they say and do and what’s in the fine print. You want to look for what is there and, more importantly, for what is not there. Sometimes what’s left out is even more important than what’s left in.
For example, one time, a friend and client of mine was working on a deal for a major movie sequel with Universal. The first movie and merchandising did over $1 billion. This was also before streaming was a thing, and movies were either released in theaters or went straight to video.
The contract from the studio said the company could control and have rights to all future Casper movies. They were unreasonable about the terms and the money. That’s when my friend went through the contract and noticed that the studio used the term “theatrical release.” No mention of home video. So, with that in mind, the sequel went straight to video.
The key to having leverage in any deal is to come prepared. It’s not just about having an ace up your sleeve. It’s about understanding all the aspects of a negotiation so everyone gets what they want and need.
This article as originally published by Inc. March 21, 2026.