3. LEVERAGE the power of email to ask questions you might feel squeamish to ask in real life. Dig deeper for other areas of common interest, and speak to the ego of the person you are negotiating with. Praise him or her works or efforts, and most of all, be humble via email if you want to get the highest return on your time. You'd be surprised at what you can draw out of a person via email, that you might not get in a face to face (FtoF) or telephone conversation. We're not talking trickery here, we're talking about taking an interest in the other person via email. Get them to talk more about themselves, and ASK open ended questions.