Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has written that only seven percent of all negotiators ask diagnostic questions when to do so would dramatically improve the outcome of the negotiation.

FORBES: Join the 7% of Negotiators Who Get the Most Out of Every Deal

Together with Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg Graduate Business School at Northwestern University, and several other academics, Mr Morris studied mock negotiations that used only e-mail and compared them with ones preceded by a brief getting-to-know-you telephone call.

ECONOMIST: Negotiating by e-mail | The