You Can Still Win Something When You Fail in a Negotiation
When you plan for negotiation do you also plan for an alternative?
You frequently ask your team in the review, “what is your plan B”?
If plan A does not work, there has to be a fallback option.
In negotiation, plan B is called BATNA which is an acronym that stands for Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.
It is defined as the most advantageous alternative that a negotiating party can take if negotiations fail and an agreement cannot be made.
That means a party’s BATNA will be the best alternative when a negotiation becomes unsuccessful.
The term BATNA was originally used by Roger Fisher and William Ury in their 1981 book entitled “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Without Giving In.”
Suppose you are going for a Sales Negotiation which is crucial for you to achieve your quarterly number, but you are not in a position to meet the demands of the customer.
What do you do then?
If you leave the deal, you miss your target.
If you take it, you make a loss.
If you would have worked in your BATNA, then you could have handled your negotiation better.
You could have refrained from showing your desperation.
Your BATNA could have been, you worked parallelly on another deal for closure or you worked with the same customer for the upcoming deal.
You have to think creatively about how you can find out your BATNA.
Since most of us go to negotiation without thinking of our BATNA, we come under pressure and we show desperation.
In a negotiation, the worst thing a salesman can do is to show desperation.
Now assume you planned a week-long vacation and everything is planned.
One week before your leave, your Boss says that you have to cancel the leave because the CEO is coming to your location and you need to work on the presentation and also be present in the meeting.
What do you do?
Your promotion is due this year and you can not offend your Boss.
You also understand that it is important to help your manager when he genuinely needs that help.
On the other hand, this vacation is important for your family and you know how upset will be your spouse and kids.
You are in a real fix.
Now let us look at your probable BATNA.
You can tell your Boss, “Boss, you know I haven't taken any long holidays in the last two years and my family was eagerly waiting for this vacation. If I tell them that I can not go, my wife and kids will be very unhappy.”
Then you propose, “I will cancel my leave and work those days, however, I would request you to approve two weeks of leave instead of one week, so that I can convince my family.”
Your Boss can’t deny and nods oaky.
That day on the dinner table, you propose to your wife and kids “ I was thinking one week of vacation becomes too short. How about we make it two weeks?”
Everybody jumps, “that would be great.”
Then you say, but there is a small problem, we may have to shift the travel date by two weeks.
I do not think your family will have any problems with that.
From an almost hopeless situation, you did a fabulous job of saving both sides and came out winning.
So, if you plan your BATNA well in a negotiation, then you can still manage or maybe contain the damage.
What would be your BATNA next time you negotiate something important?
