The United Nations meeting only lasted 80 minutes, but renowned negotiator Allan Parker spent six months and 162 hours preparing for it.

Mr Parker was the host of the meeting, and to help the group negotiate outcomes he individually interviewed each of the 468 attendees.

"Preparation has got to be 80 per cent," he says of the art of negotiation.

And that doesn't just apply to UN delegates.

"Negotiation is [in] every interaction that occurs between every human being, no matter what," Mr Parker says.

Whether it's international relations, a trading partnership or trying to get what you want in the office, how do you nail negotiation?

Here are three pro tips.

1. Communicate excellently

The first rule of negotiation is to "listen carefully and ask really good quality questions," Mr Parker tells RN's This Working Life.

And a one-voice-fits-all approach is not the most effective.

"My advice to everybody is whatever is in front of you, match it," he says.

If someone is energetic and vivacious, you should be too, says Mr Parker. If the other person's questions are short and precise, your responses should be too.

A good negotiator matches the behaviour in front of them, says one expert. ( Getty: 10'000 Hours )

Mr Parker makes no pretences about authenticity in this aspect of negotiation.

"[It's] totally contrived," he says.

"But it's important for me to give up being Allan in Allan's culture and go, 'What do I need to become to have this person feel like I'm with them?'"

2. Learn from Hawke, Clinton and Keating

Pro negotiators: Paul Keating, Bill Clinton and Bob Hawke. ( Getty: AFP/Presley Ann/James D Morgan )

Kyle Wilson, a former diplomat and expert on Russia, says the late former prime minister Bob Hawke is a good starting point.

He saw Mr Hawke in action negotiating with Russia's foreign minister, and says he had both substance and style.

"Hawke, although he spoke no foreign language, was very good at studying his partner," he says.

"Hawke could sit back from the table, his voice would be carefully modulated, no aggressive gestures. He would never point, no emphatic gestures.

"[He could] put the Chinese at ease by his body language."

Former US president Bill Clinton is another to learn from.

"It was said of Bill Clinton that if ever you met him, he made you feel you were the only person in the world," Mr Wilson says.

He says both he and Mr Hawke had "that ability to focus on his partner very closely, be sympathetic, look for a way through, show respect".

Bob Hawke, pictured here with former Chinese premier Li Peng in 1988, had substance and style, one expert says. ( Getty: Patrick Riviere )

When it comes to international negotiation — and with China, specifically — Mr Wilson says former prime minuter Paul Keating was "the most effective negotiator of those I saw".

"Keating was remarkable. He had marvellous little tricks."

At one dinner with Chinese ministers, Mr Keating wanted to show that he thought the former Chinese prime minister Li Peng was being hyper-suspicious.

"[Keating] lifted up the plate and looked under it, then he lifted up the napkin and looked under that, and then he looked under the table," Mr Wilson explains.

"The Chinese were absolutely fascinated and they knew what he was saying.

"What he was saying was respectful ... but Keating's message was, 'look, you can take suspicion too far. We need to find a modicum of being at ease with each other, if not trust'.

"These little gestures and this stage business — it was hugely effective with the Chinese."

3. Know your audience

What's acceptable in one culture mightn't be in another, and that's a fact no more salient than in the area of negotiation.

"If you divide the world's cultural populations into categories, philosophically you've got indirect cultures and direct cultures," Mr Parker says.

He says Russian, German and Eastern Bloc nations are typically "very direct".

"So they make a lot of firm and clear statements," he says.

But that's an approach likely to get you nowhere fast in Asia, he says.

There, he says, he'd drop his voice, not use "definitive language", soften his body and make his eyes lower than those of the person he's speaking to, "which is a mark of respect".

"Whereas with the German people, I'm going to have my gestures firm and strong and pointing toward them and be direct," Mr Parker says.

Culturally appropriate behaviour is likely to lead to better communication and more successful interactions.

And culturally inappropriate behaviour?

Mr Wilson remembers a famous case when Carlton United Breweries was seeking a licence to establish a brewery in Tianjin, China, and "put a lot of effort" into negotiations.

"It all went very well for a long time, and they were getting towards signature of agreement," he says.

But when the Chinese delegation visited Melbourne, and at the end of an evening out, gifts were exchanged, things turned a little pear-shaped.

"The members of the Chinese delegation were given by Carlton United Breweries a Carlton United Breweries baseball cap, which was green," Mr Wilson says.

According to a Chinese expression, 'to wear a green hat' denotes that your partner is cheating on you, he says.

"Of course the Chinese understood this was just the barbarians' ignorance; but, as you can imagine, it was most unfortunate," he adds.