Quality, efficiency and success of a negotiation don’t depend only on substantive issues. They are influenced just as much by how the parties negotiate together.
It isn’t easy to pay attention to both the content (the “what”) and the process (the “how”) during a negotiation. In fact, negotiators tend to focus mainly on the negotiation content. As a result, the process is neglected and the quality of the negotiation suffers. The purpose of negotiation management is to help the parties to go through the negotiation process almost automatically, so that they can focus on the substantive issues and find the best solution possible.