Negotiation is about understanding why they are asking for X. It's about understanding what is important to you and the other person; only when you understand w

Negotiation is about understanding why they are asking for X. It's about understanding what is important to you and the other person; only when you understand why they want it can you come up with suitable alternatives. A great example from Conscious Business (I think) was a salesperson asking for a salary increase of like $20k or something, but it turned out they were worried about the wear and tear on their car and wanted to buy a new car to handle the local travel requirements. Instead, they added a company car to the offer, and everyone was happy.