Negotiation Tool 6 : The Accusations Audit

Khushi Shrimali
2 min readFeb 21, 2022

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What Is an Accusation Audit ?

Credit : Internet

An Accusation Audit is an approach to negotiation in which you begin by defusing the negatives likely harbored by the other side when the conversation commences. It’s a preemptive tactic by which you speculate what the other side might be thinking and proactively address those thoughts before your counterpart has a chance to voice them.

For example, if you’re calling up your cable company to try to get your bill lowered, you might begin an Accusation Audit like this: You’re going to think that I’m another cheap, irate customer who’s going to berate you just to take some aggression out. You probably also think that I have no idea how busy you are and no clue about what you have to go through every day.

Accusation audits require you to be bold. They demand fearless and creative brainstorming as you assemble your list. Be exhaustive. Your goal is to list all the possible negative emotions and get out ahead of them. You want the other side to come back and say, “Hold on, you’re being too hard on yourself.”

If you’re concerned about performing and employing the accusations audit, give it a try in low-stakes negotiations.

That’s it for now. I’ll meet you in the next blog, a new tool. One step at a time.

Note : Since these are mostly notes, I have tried not to be extra creative with my sentences. The phrases are mostly extracted from the source, as they were. Due credits go to MasterClass.

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Khushi Shrimali
Khushi Shrimali

Written by Khushi Shrimali

Enthusiastic & highly ambitious teenager, driven towards -->Entrepreneurship & Innovation -->Technology & Automation -->Personal Growth & Transformation

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