7 Tips for Getting What You Need When You Start with Nothing
When we have something that the other party wants, and they have something we want – and we are evenly matched in power, and our ability to trade concessions, and it’s in everybody’s best interests to keep each other happy, and both sides are willing to work together for a win-win outcome – negotiations can be simple.
Simple negotiations. That’s an oxymoron on the same order as jumbo shrimp, isn’t it?
How often does that scenario ever occur? The truth is that negotiations are almost never simple, and the parties are almost never equally matched. One side usually has more power than the other. Sometimes considerably more power. Which means, of course, that the other side has less. They are negotiating from a position of weakness.
A weaker negotiating position may result from a number of factors, but what most of them have in common is a lack of good alternatives. Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist, points out that “most advice about negotiating assumes you have a good BATNA [Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement].” If we don’t have a good BATNA, it means that we don’t have anything to fall back on, and may have to accept whatever the party with more power is willing to give us. In the absence of alternatives, we may lack the leverage to pursue the best negotiation terms.
So what do we do if we happen to be the underdog?
What do we do if we have no power in the negotiation – nothing to offer, nothing to leverage, and no other options?
The Weakest Link
The authors of Negotiation Genius actually tackled this issue in a chapter appropriately titled “Negotiating from a Position of Weakness.” Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman realized that most negotiators will encounter this situation at some point – and that, in fact, many types of negotiators are in a position of weakness more often than not.
They suggest a number of strategies to upset the balance of power in our favor. Here are seven of their tips for negotiating effectively from a position of weakness:
If we don’t reveal our weakness, the other party can’t take advantage of it. One option is simply concealing (or, at any rate, not advertising) the fact that we are in an awkward position with a bad BATNA. In this way we can appear to be operating from a position of strength, or at least stability.
Maybe the other party has their own weakness. Trying to uncover it may seem contrary to the spirit of the win-win negotiation, but it may turn out that the parties can really help each other. If both parties have a weak BATNA, say Malhotra and Bazerman, it means that the ZOPA [Zone of Potential Agreement] is large, and a lot of value can be created when the sides reach an agreement. Value creation is the recipe for a win-win.
We all know that saying, right? “If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” In this case, the hammer is whatever we can leverage that represents a competitive advantage – our distinct value proposition, or DVP. Anything that we can offer – be it higher quality, more comprehensive service terms, a lower price, more experience, whatever – we shouldn’t be shy about identifying and leveraging. Use that hammer – whatever we have that sets us apart, and is of value to the other party.
It may be possible to use our weakness as a strength, by actually asking the more powerful party for their help or appealing to them for sympathy. “If one person has a great BATNA and the other has a terrible one, it’s not really negotiations,” says Trunk. “It’s trying to get a little something extra. It’s asking for a favor.” Instead of trying to gain position, she advises, “Figure out where your counterpart might be willing to give a little… most people you negotiate with will be willing to give a little just to create some goodwill for the working relationship you are establishing.”
If we are focused on a single deal with a single negotiating partner, we may perceive ourselves as being weaker than we are. However, if we expand the scope of our perspective – and our negotiating strategy – to include a broader base of interests, we may realize we can stand to lose some deals by maximizing the value of our entire negotiation portfolio. This can offer up new strategies and improve our BATNA.
Do we have allies, partners, or other stakeholders with some interest in the negotiation’s outcome that we could team up with? We may be able to increase our strength by building coalitions with other relatively weak parties, to everyone’s benefit. This is the idea behind organizations like labor unions. There really is strength in numbers.
If the other party is actually in a negotiation with us, it probably means they have at least some interest in whatever we have to offer. Pointing out that, if they push us too hard, it will compromise our ability to create value for them and damage the business relationship, can actually be an effective deterrent to their taking advantage of our weakness. Prudent business partners recognize the wisdom of contributing to the strength of their network and don’t want to cripple a value-creating partner.
Baker Communications offers leading-edge Negotiations Training solutions that will help you address the goals and achieve the solutions addressed in this article. For more information about how your organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that leads to bigger wins during negotiations in any setting, click here.
