Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Negotiation Skill
Negotiation Skill
A. Define: your own goals, your opponent’s goals and the conflict.
B. Identify the goals you share with your opponent.
C. Define the things you are willing to trade and their value to your opponent. Do the
same for the other side: what might they offer you and how much is it worth to
you.
D. Anticipate alternative scenarios and prepare your tactics.
E. Define your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement). This will
show you how important it is to you to reach a negotiated settlement.
F. Realize that you are not weaker or stronger than your opponents. The two sides
share goals and both sides are willing to trade to attain their objectives.
A. Volunteer to do the paperwork: to keep notes on what is being agreed upon. The
person who takes the notes is likely to be the one that is happier with the results.
B. Open by stating the goals you share.
C. State your demands: high if you are selling; low if you are buying.
D. If the other side makes an unreasonable demand, be prepared to flinch! Let out an
anguished "What?!" If need be, walk out. (You can always walk back in.)
E. If you yield from your demands, yield small amounts, infrequently. Never yield a
large amount.
F. Never give something for nothing. Trade what is cheap to you, but valuable to the
other side for what is valuable to you but cheap to them.
G. Talk less and listen more: remember that you will never give anything away while
you are silent. Use the silent periods to think over what the other side has said.
Consider what tradeoffs you want to offer them.
H. Find alternatives.
I. Take breaks.
J. If you are going to attack, attack hard and without warning.
K. Reach for agreement, but do not insist on it. The end result may be: agreement, or
agreement to continue later, or end of the negotiation.
L. If you feel pressure to settle, be aware that the other side is probably feeling
similar pressure.
A. Repeat the goals you share with your opponent, from time to time.
B. State your position clearly and repeatedly.
C. Clarify positions. Repeat what they said. Ask questions.
If you achieve all three objectives, we will recognize your performance with a handsome
bonus. A promotion along your career path is also a possibility, or a promotion to
Management may be discussed. On the other hand, if you fail to achieve the objectives
we have set for you, or worse yet, if you lose part of the business we have now, a transfer
to Goose Bay, Labrador is in store for you. The Giant sales team, as a result of their
regular networking around the home office had made the following discoveries:
1. A new super efficient communications system had been installed and debugged
that would enable customers to dial in and obtain very fast responses from
knowledgeable people regarding just about every problem that was likely to come
up. This system was due to be opened for customer use within six months.
2. The Engineering Department was about to announce a new motor that would cut
electrical consumption by 17%, without any sacrifice in power. The price of the
new motor would be 50 cents higher than the existing motor.
On the other hand, management was giving purchasing managers the lati-tude to use only
two sources instead of three if there was clear indication that higher profits would accrue
to Universal as a result.
To emphasize the seriousness of these goals, management had also
announced a plan to encourage 5% of their employees to retire early
on a reduced pension. There were also rumors of impending
elimination of one level of management. To soften the impact of these
devastating announcements and rumors, management had instituted a
system of generous bonuses to be paid to managers whose
performance had resulted in substantial cost savings or increases in
sales volume.