What clues help me tell real negotiation resistance from a tactic?

[MarkYM]

I’ve been trying to get better at reading a room during a negotiation, but I keep misjudging when the other side is just posturing versus when they’ve genuinely hit their walk-away point. Last week, I thought I was picking up on a real concession, but it turned out to be a tactic and I left value on the table. How do you all distinguish genuine resistance from a strategic play?

[GaryG]

I used to chase a single cue and I got burned. Now I watch patterns across several talks. If a move sounds big but does not survive a small test it is likely posturing. I track shifts across rounds and see if the other side sticks to a real line or keeps shifting.

[Oliver.M]

Maybe I read the room wrong because I am anxious about time. One time we hit a dead end and I assumed a hard stop but later I learned they were just stalled. After that I slowed down and asked small clarifying questions to test reactions.

[ThomasT]

When I have data I look at the rhythm of moves and I compute a rough threshold. If a real concession appears I hear the change in constraints and see a new direction. If the talk drags on with small shifts I treat that as resistance and adjust the ask rather than chase the big move.

[John64]

I drifted into a different topic once to see how they defended it and then came back to the main point. It felt clumsy but it told me something about their stance. I did not want to over read it but it did not vanish.