Analysis of negotiating outcomes and using of the reached agreements

Your bargaining power

Power, as it is perceived and used by both parties, can determine the outcome to a large extent. What are the offers or demands being made? What are the consequences to each party of rejection or acceptance of them? Does rejection (or acceptance) mean more to one party than to the other? How then should you react to the proposals? When you have assessed your bargaining power, go back and reconsider your original objectives.

Your negotiating strategy

The best strategy is the one which is effective in the context of the negotiating situation itself. If you fail to find the right strategy, you are unlikely to achieve your desired outcome.

• How can you change the other party's expectations?

• How can you get information from them, e.g. their commitment to their objectives, the importance to them of achieving them, their fall-back positions?

• How can you increase your bargaining power? By pre-negotiation conditioning? What strategies can you use to counter theirs?

• What sorts of strategies can you use?

• How can you best structure the agenda? For structuring the other party's expectations? Do you want to treat the items singly or as a package?

Brief your negotiating team

Brief them on the strategy, the roles and tasks you want them to perform during the negotiation: who takes notes, who acts as chairperson, who deals with interruptions, how to deal with conflict techniques (e.g. misquoting, discrediting, ignoring contributors, etc.) and who should control the pace of the negotiation.

This knowledge will enable you to plan your approach to the negotiation and make you aware of areas where you may have to give way, and other areas where you will be able to gain. It will also prepare you for likely 'dirty tricks' which might be introduced into the discussions. Make sure your team members are briefed on how to behave under pressure, and that they know the importance of non-verbal communication.

Opening Negotiations

It is important to make a tough but credible opening. In the early stages of bargaining it is important to follow this up by maintaining a firm stance, to demonstrate to the other side that you are unlikely to make substantial movements from your opening position (whether or not this is actually the case).

Your job as a negotiator is to put forward persuasive arguments that will compel the other side to agree with you and thereby make concessions. However, never verbally attack the other side, always be polite and if possible provide them with an escape route. Disagree firmly but don’t try to make the other side look small. If you indulge in personal attacks the other side may dig in and a deadlock may result.

Opening the meeting

Creating the right atmosphere for the meeting will be important if later parts of the meeting are to end in agreement. Tough issues can be sorted out without necessarily establishing an ice-cold atmosphere at the start; equally, if the players have not met before and the stakes are high, quite a time may be allocated to establishing an atmosphere of trust.