Reading people isn’t new. Hippocrates mapped four temperaments over 2,000 years ago. DISC, Merrill-Reid, Thomas-Kilmann — they all land on the same four archetypes.
The labels change. The pattern doesn’t.
| DISC | Merrill-Reid | NegotiatorIQ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assertive + Task | Dominance | Driver | 🦁 Closer |
| Assertive + People | Influence | Expressive | 🐵 Game Changer |
| Reserved + People | Steadiness | Amiable | 🐬 Diplomat |
| Reserved + Task | Conscientiousness | Analytical | 🦉 Strategist |
These frameworks are proven. They’ve helped millions of people understand how they communicate and work.
They were built for the workplace. Negotiation demands something more.
Where Ours Is Different — For the Right Reasons
Traditional assessments measure behavioral tendencies and communication preferences. Valuable stuff.
"When the deal stalls, can this person invent a new structure? Are they hearing what the other side needs — or waiting to talk? When tension rises, do they escalate or regulate?"
We built the NegotiatorIQ assessment around 7 traits — including 5 that traditional tools weren’t designed to measure:
Creativity. The ability to reframe a stalled deal. DISC doesn’t measure this. But it changes outcomes.
Listening. Not patience. Not “Steadiness.” Active information gathering as a negotiation skill.
EQ. Not Thinking vs. Feeling. Managing your emotions under pressure while reading theirs.
Adaptability. What happens when the plan breaks mid-conversation. Some people thrive. Others freeze.
Confidence. How someone opens, holds position, and recovers when they’re wrong — specifically at the table.
These five — alongside assertiveness and empathy — form a 7-dimension profile built specifically for negotiation. Not a replacement for existing frameworks. An extension into the space where the stakes are real.
5 Ways to Spot These Traits in Real Time
Each question maps to one of those traits. Five questions. Thirty seconds.
1. Creativity — “When the deal stalls, what do they do?”
🦁 Closer — pushes harder on the same terms.
🐵 Game Changer — rebuilds the structure entirely.
🐬 Diplomat — looks for a compromise in the middle.
🦉 Strategist — goes back to the data for a different angle.
2. Listening — “Are they waiting to talk or waiting to understand?”
🦁 Closer — formulating their response while you’re still talking.
🐵 Game Changer — listening for the spark — the one thing they can build on.
🐬 Diplomat — absorbing everything — tone, words, what’s unsaid.
🦉 Strategist — cataloging every detail for later.
3. EQ — “What happens when tension rises?”
🦁 Closer — gets louder. Escalates energy.
🐵 Game Changer — redirects. Cracks a joke or changes the subject.
🐬 Diplomat — softens tone. De-escalates.
🦉 Strategist — goes quiet. Pulls inward.
4. Adaptability — “What happens when the plan breaks?”
🦁 Closer — forces the original plan forward anyway.
🐵 Game Changer — thrives. New plan in 30 seconds.
🐬 Diplomat — adjusts to maintain the relationship.
🦉 Strategist — needs time to recalculate.
5. Confidence — “How do they open?”
🦁 Closer — leads with their position. No hesitation.
🐵 Game Changer — leads with a big idea.
🐬 Diplomat — leads with a question.
🦉 Strategist — leads with context and data.
Five questions. Five traits. Now you know who you’re dealing with — and how they negotiate, not just who they are.
Know Yours First
Reading the other person is half the equation.
A Closer who knows they’re a Closer can pause before bulldozing a Diplomat who needs five more minutes of rapport.
A Diplomat who knows they’re a Diplomat can lean into the discomfort and make the ask.
A Strategist can set a deadline instead of analyzing forever.
A Game Changer can lock onto one idea and drive it home.
That self-awareness is Move 1: Know Yourself. Part of The 8 Moves™ of Negotiation. Everything else builds on it.
Want to know your patterns across all 7 negotiation traits?