Rating: 
Summary: A lot closer to win-win than you think.
Review: A simply brilliant book, on "how to" negotiate. While contrarian in nature the underlaying principles are a lot closer to win-win than the author admits. A thurough understanding of win-win and strategic negotiation is required before reading this book however.
It dose take some time to "get into" this book, as it contradicts everything you have been tought. But stick it out and you will begin to see the deeper level of understanding behind the book, and win-win strategy as well.
A must read for any profesional. As for those who "don't get it" - too bad.
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Summary: Sometimes the truth hurts, but wins!
Review: As a European negotiator in the USA, i found this book incredible. Jim Camp gives a spot on analogy from Ross Perot about how many Americans can't or will not negotiate. When i first came to the U.S even my superiors told me it wasn't the done thing, until i started to save them money. The simple rules that Jim Camp puts forward are nuggets of gold and will change your whole concept of negotiating. Sometimes the truth does hurt, but Camp gives great examples of how to adapt yourself and overcome your own objections. I look forward to further work from this author
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Summary: Brilliant, Insightful Advice For ALL Business People
Review: EVERY business experience is a negotiation--sales, hiring, supplying, training--and every one of them can be enhanced by Camp's no-nonsense real-world advice. You will find yourself reading this book about "No" and saying as you read "Yes!" at every page. He's got it figured out, folks. Learn from him and prosper--even in your personal relationships. I thought I'd have to get past the "tough-guy" attitude portrayed in the jacket blurbs at first, but the author is sincere and cheerful in his hard-tack manner. This stuff WORKS and is REAL-world applicable, not just ivory-tower advisory. Get this book for yourself, and get it for your team...if you want to win.
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Summary: doormats, sensitive people...we need this
Review: finally, a book that tells you how to not get the short end of the stick. there is no hype in this book. this book is an instruction manual describing, in very clear detail, how to be in control of any negotiation. that means, anything from negotiating with a difficult teenager to brokering a million dollar deal. this info really opened my eyes; I'm not a complete pushover, but I'm not some pit bull. i've always shyed away from sales and negotiation because i felt my empathy for others was a weakness. WRONG! this book isn't about being an a-hole, being rude, or being fake. it's about taking your empathy as a strength, of being clever in an elegant way. there are such detailed instructions and examples, i can't see why you can't lift these examples and use them in your life. in fact, right after reading this book, i started using some of the example phrases, and found them very empowering. finally...the nice people can win and still remain the good guys.
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Summary: How to Avoid Making Unnecessary Compromises
Review: For various reasons, many people are convinced that any negotiation should be concluded on a win-win basis. That is, all who are directly involved walk away with something...or at least think they have. (Back to that point in a moment.) In this volume, Camp asserts that win-win is emotion-based, therefore unreliable and often self-defeating. He claims that the most effective negotiators take a decision-based approach which he explains step-by-step. "What is the poison that resides at the heart of the big lie which is win-win? You've heard of the deadly stuff. It's called [in italics] compromise....Why in the world compromise before you are certain you have to? Sometimes you do, and that's fine, but often you don't, and that's better. The key point is that with the win-win mindset, [in italics] you'll never know which it is." Here a brief excerpt from Richard Tedlow's The Watson Dynasty in which he discusses a sales strategy used effectively by Joseph Crane who, when National Cash Register's salespersons encountered arguments and objections for which they were unprepared, recommended this response: "Why, that's just the very reason you should have one!" Crane was a great salesman from whom Thomas H. Watson Sr. learned a great deal while employed by NCR. In this instance, as Tedlow explains, "A prospect has just advanced a reason why he should not buy a register. He encounters [in the response by the NCR salesperson] not hesitation, not argument, not refutation. Rather, he is told that his reason not to buy is actually the reverse of what he thought it was. Once again, the magic lay in putting the salesman on the same side of the customer. Crane put the customer in the position of arguing with himself while agreeing with the salesman." Perhaps Camp agrees with me that the single worst mistake in any negotiation, the single most common mistake, is to argue against yourself. According to Camp, there is a significant difference between perception and reality insofar as a win-win resolution is concerned. That is, if the other party walks away thinking that she or he has "won" something, fine. However, Camp insists, "win-win is often win-lose because it invites unnecessary compromise, because it is [in italics] emotion-based, not [in italics] decision-based, and because it plays to the heart, not to the head." He carefully organizes his material within 14 chapters which introduce, one by one, the principles and practices of his system. In the final chapter, Camp shares what he considers to be "Life's Greatest Lesson: The Only Assurance of Long Term Success" and then in his Conclusion, he offers 33 "rules to remember." I have previously reviewed several excellent books on the subject of negotiation, each of which (to varying degree) recommends a win-win approach. Obviously, Camp totally disagrees with that approach and explains why. It remains for each reader of this commentary to consider carefully all manner of values, mindsets, strategies, and tactics which these books advocate, then decide for herself or himself which are most appropriate. My own opinion (for whatever it may be worth) is that the decision-based approach is preferable to the emotion-based approach; also that, if at all possible, the resolution of any negotiation serves the best interests of everyone involved. In the final analysis, however, "charity begins at home."
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: Half of this book is spent on decrying the "Win-win" philosophy of negotiation. The author flatout says those who search for Win-Win situation are amateur negotiators who need his help. Then he writes about how we all can be a negotiation shark like him and negotiate everyone's shirt off their backs. By this time, he totally lost my interest. I must say, I didn't finish this book. In fact, I regret I read 70% of it. There ARE situations when hardball negotiation tactics are suitable. But to use it all the time without ever coming to a Win-Win conclusion may spell long term disaster.
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Summary: It has worked for me.
Review: Hello all,
two years ago I decided to start my own business. The result so far has been nothing at all. In spite of having many ideas somehow I haven't been able to get to the end of any.
All the times I have negotiated I have done feeling a big necessity to receive a yes and I have reached very bad agreements resulting in people not taking me seriously. I just didn't have the slightest clue at managing negotiations: What to expect, how to act, how to ask for what I want,...
Today I had my first negotiation after reading this wonderful book. What a difference. I didn't feel any necessity cause I know there are more companies that would be interested. I had on paper a list of the things I wanted to received from the other company. I was willing to receive a NO or to say it.
Result: Instead of just talking and getting nowhere (like always so far) the guy has accepted my petitions and I am moving on with the project. What a difference!!!
I feel that now I have tools at negotiating. I don't feel lost or fearful. I know how to act and ask for what I want.
Thanks Jim Camp for this book.
(sorry for my english which limits how I can explain myself).
Rating:
Summary: No Is NOT A Four Letter Word!
Review: I couldn't believe my eyes-- someone wrote a whole book about the word NO! I found this gem by Jim Camp as I was developing a suggested reading list for my own book titled, Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life where chapter six is titled, "Learn to say no -- put YOU first sometimes." I could not find a more thorough negotiating guide than Start With NO. I encourage readers to embrace the strength of this two letter word and Jim Camp agrees that NO is a powerful message! Don't waste another day, buy Start With No by Jim Camp and Rat Race Relaxer by JoAnna Carey and you will find a new world of possibility.
Rating:
Summary: No Is NOT A Four Letter Word!
Review: I couldn't believe my eyes-- someone wrote a whole book about the word NO! As I was developing a suggested reading list for my own book titled, Rat Race Relaxer:Your Potential & The Maze of Life, I found this gem by Jim Camp! I encourage readers and workshop attendees to "Learn to say no -- put YOU first sometimes" and Jim Camp proves that NO is a powerful message!
Rating:
Summary: A real eye-opener for anyone negotiating anything
Review: I was VERY impressed with Jim Camp's "Start with No." In under 300 pages, the author gets his point across succinctly and powerfully; negotiations don't begin with "Yes" (which might even be a lie) or "Maybe" which is worse than useless. They begin with "No" and giving permission for the other party to say "no." The brilliance of the "no" can be the important "way out" in a negotiation, where one party is offered a graceful exit to avoid the sense of feeling trapped or tricked. And it's also the path to finding out what they really need or really can accept. But it's much more than that. Camp informs the reader that previous theories of negotiation such as "Win-Win" are pure bunkum; in negotiation, sometimes someone wins and someone else loses. But the long-term outcome may be quite different--what might have been compromised into a mediocre solution by win-win can often be better for both parties when one loses at the outset. Case in point; a contract is drawn up with terms that one party can no longer fulfill. It's time to renegotiate the contract despite the terms and conditions. Why? What if the contract specified that a vendor sell at a price that would drive them out of business? If the buyer NEEDS that product, they'd better negotiate rather than fail to receive the product. Going elsewhere to find it could be more costly than the re-negotiated price. Camp's experiences are in direct contrast to some of business guru Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People", which I thought was quite interesting. To remind you, the habits are: 1- Be Proactive
2- Begin with the End in Mind
3- Put First Things First
4- Think Win/Win
5- Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
6- Synergize
7- Sharpen the Saw Mr. Camp actually has no issue with the majority of these habits, but he disagrees vehemently with two of the seven principles: #2--begin with the end in mind, and #4 Think Win/Win. In the case of negotiation, sometimes, Mr. Camp informs us, it's better not be so focused on the goal i.e, getting the lowest price, making that sales quota for that month) lest you appear needy. What's more, being too focused on your own goal might cause you to make dangerous assumptions or fail to realize the underlying situation. And Camp scoffs at the idea of win-win, giving the reader plenty of real-life examples where losing either was just that...losing, or was a neutral outcome (no win, but better than other potentially worse outcomes.) I recommend this book to anyone getting ready to negotiate nearly anything, from extended bedtimes for your kids, to a refinanced mortgage to a multi-million dollar deal. Excellent material here from this experienced contrarian.
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