Negotiations Skills Training
With
over twenty-five years of proven industry experience, the
Negotiations
Training Institute of America is the recognized leader in
negotiations training, consulting and performance coaching. Through public open
enrollment seminars and private on-session training sessions, we
have helped leading corporations, non-profit organizations and governmental
agencies improve their ability to
negotiate
better outcomes for their constituencies.
First-time
negotiators as well as those with the greatest
competitive
drive and amount of first-hand experience and
negotiations
wisdom can benefit from our time-tested workshops. Whether focusing
on
negotiating
a contract with a vendor or jumping in to the often-stressful
car buying process to
deal
with a dealership, our courses provide useful skills, proven techniques
and various classroom role plays to help you
become
more aware of negotiations that you must face on a daily basis.
For more information on our negotiation skills training courses please
contact us.
Negotiations
Training
If You
Can't Come to Agreement:
Knowing Your Alternatives
You've been
sitting at the
negotiating
table for the past twelve hours... save for a few bathroom breaks
and a timeout to eat a stale bagel with room temperature cream cheese,
you just can't seem to make any progress. There are a few key items
where neither you nor the other party can
come
to agreement. Your interests just seem too far apart and it
doesn't seem likely that either one of you is going to budge. Personally,
you don't want to give up. You feel like the relationship with the
other party is just too important and you are focused on trying
to
find
a solution.
Following a
quick bathroom timeout, you walk back into the conference room and
sit back down at
the negotiating table.
You: "Well...
that's much better. Now, where were we? I think we were trying to
understand a bit more about your position on the jurisdiction.
If I understand you correctly, you..."
The Other Party:
"Before you go any further... I really do appreciate all the
effort you have put into our discussion."
You: "Of
course... I'm glad we're still trying to sort this out."
The Other Party:
"Well, that's just it. I don't think we're going to reach common
ground on these last clauses. We've decided to
call
off the negotiation and start looking at another alternative."
You: *gulp!*
"Oh..."
Wow. You didn't
see that coming. Well... at least you had prepared a contingency
plan for this type of situation. Right? You didn't? *gulp* "Oh..."
Let's face it...
failed
negotiations happen all the time. There are times when each
party has interests and desires that are so far apart that no amount
of talking with lead to a negotiated agreement. So, just like no
one should step into a negotiation without knowing what they want
to accomplish, no one should step into a negotiation without having
appraised the consequences of failing to reach agreement. This is
the process of establishing a "Best
Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement" and a "Worst
Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement". For simplicity's sake,
let's use BATNA and WATNA for short.
The BATNA is
simple... if you and the other party can come to an agreement, what
are the
best
alternatives to pursue? What other solutions can you pursue?
Are there other parties who can do what this party was planning
to do? Are there other ways to accomplish what you were trying to
accomplish? Take the time to come up with a list of these different
alternatives. These aren't necessarily bad things. They
compromise
your fallback position or positions. Knowing these alternatives,
you have a clear understanding of what can or will be done should
you need to walk away from a negotiation. It helps to understand
that other party's BATNA, as well, so that you can have a
realistic
expectation of the negotiation. If you're not the only game
in town and other companies can do what you were proposing to do,
this will influence your discussions.
The WATNA, while
still simple, is not quite as pleasant to think about. This is the
worst-case
scenario. Your negotiations have fallen apart and the only supplier
who can provide you with an important product component doesn't
want to talk anymore. Now what do you do? You need to understand
the
worst possible
outcome to know how far you can and can't go in a negotiation.
If failing to negotiate an agreement leads to a company shutting
down, perhaps you should
readjust
your aspirations and focus on
getting
things resolved. Knowing your WATNA can make or break you...
have both your BATNA and WATNA established before meeting with the
other party.
For Negotiation
Skills Seminar information please
contact
us.
Related:
Negotiation Course
|