The Critical Negotiation Skill Of Determining Achieveable Targets For Your Commercial Negotiations.
A critical negotiation skill in your business negotiations is how you go about planning your objectives.
I would like to offer you 3 important points that we cover in our negotiation skills training programmes to think about when you are preparing for your negotiations.
1. What is the absolutely best result for you in this negotiation?
What would a great agreement (one that you would be delighted to agree to) look like?
We call this your aspiration base - in other words, the level at which you will aspire to close the transaction.
You should remember that it is vital in your negotiation to always ask for a little more than you would like to receive. This means that you must always have an aspiration base that is higher than your targeted objective. By asking for a little more than you would like to receive you enable yourself to make a concession to your counterpart in return for a counter concession.
On the upside, you may just get what you regard to be fantastic if you ask for it! Don't make the mistake of making decisions on behalf of your counterpart by saying to yourself they will not consider that .Take note that I am not proposing that you make extreme demands - extreme demands are very risky and dependent on the cultural context within which you find yourself.
2. What is the absolutely minimum acceptable outcome for you in this negotiation?
At what stage will you decide to stop or suspend your negotiation?
If you do not decide on a specific point at which it will no longer be feasible or attractive for you to close a transaction, then you may become vulnerable to reaching an agreement that you will not be happy with. This is vital to do as you could easily become emotionally committed to reaching agreement at all cost because you may think that your personal credibility is at stake.
3. What do you think are the aspirations and minimum acceptable agreement levels for your counterpart?
It is also critical that you think about the aspirations and minimum acceptable deal levels from your counterparts viewpoint. This will never be an exact science but through proper preparation and research of supporting information you may be able to get a good idea of what kind of deal is the norm in your industry or kind of negotiation.
By considering the aspirations and minimum acceptable deal levels from your counterparts perspective, you will be able to identify the agreement range. Being aware of the agreement range or zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) will help you to see if a transaction is possible or not.
Most negotiation training courses will teach you that the bargaining range is defined as the area of overlap between your minimum acceptable deal level and the minimum acceptable deal levels of your counterpart.
Remember that 99 percent of your success in negotiation is dependent on the quality of your preparation. You should spend at least as much time preparing for negotiations as you expect to be busy negotiating. If you expect to be in negotiations for a day, then you should spend at least the same time in preparations.