P L A N N I N G F O R N E G O T I AT I O N

HELEN PENG
CONTENT

• Game plan
A negotiation plan consists of three stages, there are:
a. pre-negotiation planning
b. During negotiation behavior and
c. Post-negotiation understanding
PRE-NEGOTIATION PLANNING
 Know thyself:
Evidence shows that people who have lesser tolerance for ambiguity tend to be losers in negotiation.

 Know the adversary

Women tend to be more conciliatory than man; the famine-oriented students were found to be less deceiving than the
masculine-oriented. …cultural differences do make a difference in the negotiating styles of individuals.

 Specify your goals and objective: Be to clear as to what are your immediate and long-
term objectives in the negotiation.. It is absolutely necessary to priorities your objectives.. Or combine into a single package

 Develop arguments/alternatives: what would be a tolerable limit without losing much

 Agenda/procedures: what issues/items on which negotiation has to take place…..physical
arrangement like seating arrangement at the venue. Seating arrangement=body language. Time frame for negotiation should
be identified…decision are taken usually towards the end of the closing period of time.
 DURING NEGOTIATION BEHAVIOR
 Opening Move: If the parties in negotiation are meeting for the first time, the opening move becomes very
important. The basic idea of the opening dialogue is to put the other individual/party at ease and to help in settling down. Too
conservative or too liberal an offer can prolong the process of negotiation.

 Negotiation Dance: based on two elements- frequency of proposals and size of proposals. Frequency refers to
the number of times proposal are made and size refers to the quantity/value of the proposals.
**The time for closing the deal approaches, the frequency of concessions increases-called monotone decrease.
** A negotiation dance also deals with las-clear chance offer, a tendency to reach the maximum limit and then to say “take it or
leave it”

 Influence mechanisms
1. Referent Power: Dropping names with these people should be taken into account in the negotiation settlement.

2. Expert Power: It refers to using their expertise on the issues or using jargon unfamiliar to other individual/party,
thereby indicating that they know more about the issue and hence their point of view is the best.
POST-NEGOTIATION UNDERSTANDING
IT REQUIRES A BLUE PRINT TO PUT THE AGREEMENTS IN ACTION.

• Implementation Plan: including the course of action, resource generation and resource
utilization, a time table and indices for monitoring, and evaluation of the success of the course of action
taken.

• Role Responsibilities: Helping in allocating responsibilities, authority, and accountability to

save time and energy by avoiding unnecessary duplication of efforts and streamlines the need for
coordination between the two individuals/parties in negotiation.

• Review Teams: These individual/parties should ensure adequate information sharing, provide
timely feedback, make mid-course correction, and by and large make sure that progress is timely and as
planned.