Identify the Key Issues

• What is the main problem?
• Who is concerned with it?
• What would happen if it did not exist?
• What happens now that it does exist?
• Who currently gains from it?
• Who currently loses from it?
• Get a very precise statement if the issues

Set Outcomes: Best and Realistic

• What is the best we can hope for?
• What is the worst?
• At what point do we back off (BATNA - see below)?
• Can we phase any of our outcomes?
• What about the other party(s)?

Set Negotiation Range

• Establish your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement) and your FEP (Final Exit Point)
• Obtain levels of negotiating authority

Outcomes

It is worth spending time working out the answers to all the points below. Some are the negatives of the others but it is good to define outcomes precisely so that you can recognize when a negotiation id taking you to the correct path and when it is going off-course.

• What do we want?
• What do we not want?
• How do we want it?
• How don't we want it ?
• Where do we want it?
• Where do we not want it?
• When do we want it?
• When don't we want it?
• What will it be like?
• What will it be unlike?
• How will we know when we have got it?
• How will we know if we haven't got it?

Negotiation Range

This is simply the difference between the minimum that we will accept and the maximum we want. For instance if we have tow groups negotiating, Group A and Group B we would hope that they could come to an agreement. Where there is an overlap in the negotiation range then there can be agreement.



There is a negotiation range overlap: from £2,500 to £3,000.



Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)

Defined by Roger Fry and William Ury in Getting to "YES".

If we cannot find a negotiated settlement - then what?

It is always good to ask this question - especially when faced with the best possible contract or sale that your company has seen for several months. At what point would you walk away because the prospective customer was making excessive demands?

In most circumstances there is an option we can take if we cannot reach agreement. If you ask your manager for a pay rise and are refused then your BATNA may be to resign and look for a better paid job elsewhere. It is not necessarily a pleasant option, but it is an option.

In some war and conflict situations the BATNA can be further hostilities.

If there is no alternative then we need to negotiate, negotiate, and negotiate!

So, set a BATNA and get agreement from your hierarchy on the BATNA. Then you will be able to negotiate in confidence.

Final Exit Point (FEP)

Given a BATNA when do you exit proceedings?

What is your "last stand" position?

Is this backed up in your hierarchy? - there is nothing worse than reaching what you believe to be your FEP, walking out of the meeting and then finding that people in your hierarchy take a different position.

Think back to childhood, how often will a child set parents against each other and having reached a block from one parent ask the other and find the block overturned? The effect this has on the authority of the parents is marked.

Negotiating Authority

• How much leeway do you have?
• How long will it take to go to a higher level?
• How do you keep higher levels informed of situation?
• When do you pull out of the discussions and send in a higher authority?

Communications

Research into the effects of communications has shown that the effects of body language or non-verbal communication is very high. This means that for the Negotiator you need to be able to interpret body language and understand what the individual is "saying" with their arms, eyes and posture. One word of warning - be careful to take a cluster of movements into account, not just one single gesture.

Mehrabian (1969)

This research found that:

Message impact



Birdwhistell (1971)

Birdwhistell found that the average person speaks words for a total of 11 minutes a day. An average sentence lasts only 2.5 seconds and most communication (65%) is non-verbal. Like Mehrabian he found that the verbal component of face-to-face conversations is less than 35% and that over 65% of communication is done non-verbally. He contends that a well-trained person can tell what a person is saying by the gestures they are making and that by looking at gestures, Birdwhistell could tell what language people were talking!

Verbal communication is used for conveying information; non-verbal for feelings and showing attitudes.

You will do an exercise on the words chosen and how they indicate what senses an individual chooses to process information with most of the time. Be sure that as a Negotiator you use a range of words so that everyone in the room can understand your meaning.