In my last few blog articles, I have talked about a lot of concepts for mutual gains bargaining, now it’s time prepare for your actual negotiation discussion. 

The most important thing to do to prepare for a negotiation is to know your BATNA: your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.  Your BATNA is the standard by which you evaluate any offers.  You can greatly improve your bargaining success by vigorously exploring what you will do if you don’t make an agreement. 

Now, keep in mind that your BATNA is not your walk-a-way point.  Your walk-a-way point is what is minimally acceptable to you. For example, if you have lost your job and are receiving unemployment benefits, your BATNA is to continue receiving unemployment benefits, which are probably about $21K per year.  When you are negotiating with a prospective employer over a new job, you would probably not accept a salary that was as low as your unemployment benefits. 

During the course of negotiations, you should continuously work to improve your BATNA, which will strengthen your bargaining position.  To continue the example above, while you are looking for a new job, you can improve your BATNA by working part-time or taking a contract position. 

Once you have thought about your BATNA, there are a few more things to consider in preparation for your negotiation. It makes sense to go ahead and write these down. 

  • Your Interests – identify all the things you might want to gain from this negotiation
  • Leverage – this is your source of power in a negotiation.  What do you have that they want?
  • Goal – what do you hope to accomplish?  Your goal should be justifiably optimistic.
  • BATNA – write it down.  Commit it to paper. 
  • Walk-a-way point – what is the most you will give?
  • Opening offer – a good rule of thumb is to open with the highest offer you could reasonably explain to an independent 3rd party.

It is extremely important to be well-prepared.  In addition to thinking through the above concepts for yourself, think about the same things for the other side.  Think about their leverage, their BATNA, their walk-a-way point.  You may not be able to confirm some of your assumptions, but it really helps to anticipate the case they will try to make.