Enhance Your BATNAs Before a Negotiation

In any negotiation, you can boost your power in two ways:

1. Importance. Which party needs the agreement?
2. Alternatives. How many alternatives does each party have?

The second factor is called a BATNA: Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (Fisher, Ury, & Patton, 2011).

You can boost your power by raising the (a) quantity, (b) quality, and (c) plausibility of your BATNAs (Kim, Pinkley, & Fragale, 2005).

• Fisher, R., Ury, W. L., & Patton, B. (2011). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. Penguin.
• Kim, P. H., Pinkley, R. L., & Fragale, A. R. (2005). Power dynamics in negotiation. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), 799-822.