One Step Ahead

One Step Ahead is a guide to negotiation by David Sally, who has taught the subject for more than twenty years at leading business schools and to executives at top companies. He argues that negotiating tactics have been through a revolution, and that the best negotiators have moved beyond classics such as How to Win Friends & Influence People and Getting to Yes.

The book sets out the fundamentals that separate a sophisticated negotiator from everyone else. Readers learn how to decide when to negotiate and how to read a situation strategically. It also covers which personality traits matter, why emotions need not be avoided, and how to be tough and fair at once. Sally offers memorable pieces of advice along the way, including being round on the outside and square on the inside, avoiding bumping into the furniture, and mastering the word and the number.

Sally holds that while not all of life is a negotiation, a negotiation draws on all of life. The book is therefore meant for anyone who bargains, parents, manages, buys or sells. It draws on current research and real-world results, with examples ranging from the NBA and the corner con game to Machiavelli, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama. It challenges conventional wisdom so that readers can stay one step ahead of whoever sits across the table.