The Negotiation Checklist: How to Win the Battle Before It Begins
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University Cornell University School of Hotel Administration The Scholarly Commons Articles and Chapters School of Hotel Administration Collection 2-1997 The Negotiation Checklist: How To Win The Battle Before It Begins Tony L. Simons Cornell University, [email protected] Thomas M. Tripp Washington State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles Part of the Hospitality Administration and Management Commons Recommended Citation Simons, T., & Tripp, T. T. (1997). The negotiation checklist: How to win the battle before it begins. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 38(1), 14-23. Retrieved [insert date], from Cornell University, School of Hospitality Administration site: http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/671/ This Article or Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Hotel Administration Collection at The Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles and Chapters by an authorized administrator of The Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. If you have a disability and are having trouble accessing information on this website or need materials in an alternate format, contact [email protected] for assistance. The Negotiation Checklist: How To Win The Battle Before It Begins Abstract Being well-prepared going into a negotiation is key to being successful when you come out. This negotiation checklist is a tool that can maximize your preparation effectiveness and efficiency. Keywords negotiation, hiring decisions, BATNA Disciplines Hospitality Administration and Management Comments Required Publisher Statement © Cornell University. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. This article or chapter is available at The Scholarly Commons: https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/671 The Negotiation Checklist How to Win the Battle Before It Begins Being well-prepared going into a negotiation is key to being successful when you come out. This negotiation checklist is a tool that can maximize your preparation effectiveness and efficiency. by Tony Simons and Thomas M. Tripp P■ reparationrepc increases your chance of success, whether in combat, sports, or negotiations. The well- prepared negotiator knows the play ing field and the players, is seldom surprised, and can promptly capital ize on opportunities. This article offers a tool for use in effectively Tony Simons, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administra tion and Thomas M . Tripp, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Washington State University. The co-authors, who are listed alphabetically, express their thanks to Jeanne Brett for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. © 1997, Cornell University 14 HOTEL ANDRESTAURANT ADMINISTRATION QUARTERLY Downloaded from cqx.sagepub.com at CORNELL UNIV on May 4, 2015 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved. HUMAN RESOURCES negotiating important transactions and disputes. Negotiation Checklist Making deals is a key part of being effective in business. Managers A systematic way to ensure you are well-prepared before your next negotiation. and executives negotiate constantly Vj Item over issues as varied as hiring deci accomplished sions and purchases, corporate re A. About You source allocations, and labor con □ 1. What is your overall goal? tracts. One could argue that the □ 2. What are the issues? American system of government is □ 3. How important is each issue to you? based on an ongoing process of Develop a scoring system for evaluating offers: negotiation, which is sometimes □ (a) List all of the issues of importance from step 2. successful and sometimes not. □ (b) Rank order all of the issues. The “negotiation checklist” that O (c) Assign points to all the issues (assign weighted values based on a total we present in this article is a system of 100 points). □ (d) List the range of possible settlements for each issue. Your assessments atic way to make sure you are well- of realistic, low, and high expectations should be grounded in industry prepared before you walk into your norms and your best-case expectation. next negotiation. It is based on □ (e) Assign points to the possible outcomes that you identified for each issue. proven principles of negotiation □ (f) Double-check the accuracy of your scoring system. that are taught at several of North □ (g) Use the scoring system to evaluate any offer that is on the table. America s top business schools. □ 4. What is your “best alternative to negotiated agreement” (batna)? The techniques we describe apply □ 5. What is your resistance point (i.e., the worst agreement you are willing to accept whether you are getting ready for before ending negotiations)? If your batna is vague, consider identifying the a labor negotiation, a negotiation minimum terms you can possibly accept and beyond which you must recess to with a supplier, or a negotiation gather more information. with a customer. This checklist is not a formula for easy success in B. About the Other Side negotiations. Rather, it is a me □ 1. How important is each issue to them (plus any new issues they added)? thodical approach that requires sig □ 2. What is their best alternative to negotiated agreement? nificant work. The amount of time □ 3. What is their resistance point? and effort you spend answering the □ 4. Based on questions B.1, B.2, and B.3, what is your target? questions should depend on the importance of the negotiation and C. The Situation on the resources you have available. □ 1. What deadlines exist? Who is more impatient? The payoff for your effort emerges □ 2. What fairness norms or reference points apply? from the confidence and informa □ 3. What topics or questions do you want to avoid? How will you respond if tion that you gain from preparation. they ask anyway? The Negotiation Checklist D. The Relationship Between the Parties The negotiation checklist (in the □ 1. Will negotiations be repetitive? If so, what are the future consequences of each accompanying box) is a guide for strategy, tactic, or action you are considering? thinking about an important, up □ 2. O (a) Can you trust the other party? What do you know about them? coming negotiation. The pages that □ (b) Does the other party trust you? follow describe and explain the □ 3. What do you know of the other party’s styles and tactics? items on the list. 0 4. What are the limits to the other party’s authority? □ 5. Consult in advance with the other party about the agenda. A About You 1. What is your overall goal? Start with the big picture. What basic need will an agreement ad dress? Why are you talking to this person or this company? What do you hope to accomplish? Under- February 1997 • 15 Downloaded from cqx.sagepub.com at CORNELL UNIV on May 4, 2015 standing your main goal helps put Also, the more issues you can intro all the other aspects of the negotia duce, the more likely it becomes tion into perspective. Most people that creative solutions will arise, as begin and end their negotiation those are often built by packaging or planning by determining their over trading off multiple issues. Creative all goal. We suggest that it is just the solutions often make it easier to For any issue that is not beginning. discover an agreement that both 2. What are the issues? What parties like. discussed, the parties risk specific issues must be negotiated By adding items to the negotia for the final outcome or agreement tions agenda, you increase your to meet your overall goal? For ex chance of discovering some issues the possibility of making ample, if the overall goal is to book that you value more than the other a successful convention, what assur party, and discovering other issues different assumptions. ances, services, and constraints will that the other party values more be involved? Price may be an obvi than you. Trading off such differ ous component, but it is worthwhile ently valued issues dramatically in to consider other items, too—items creases the value of the agreement to that might make the agreement you without costing the other party. much more attractive both to your Moreover, if you know what issues self and to the other side. Delivery the other party highly values that schedules, duration of contract, you value less, you can use those product or service upgrades, cancel issues to get concessions on issues lation clauses, contingency plans, that are important to you. transportation services, complimen Imagine that you are a food and tary room nights, and many other beverage director of a hotel seeking options all have some value to those a dry-goods supplier and that you negotiating a contract. Such side have written a request for bids from issues may be researched and intro potential vendors.You have consid duced as part of a food contract, ered your storage capacity and speci conference booking, or union con fied every-other-week delivery in tract that you are preparing to your request for bids. Now, suppose negotiate. you receive a bid from Alpha Dry Consider also whether any of Goods, which has another customer the issues you have considered in town to whom they deliver once might be broken down into mul every three weeks. Alpha’s quote for tiple components or sub-issues. For biweekly delivery might be medio the conference-booking negotia cre, but it turns out that they could tion, for example, you might nor save you substantial money on tri mally consider the room-block weekly delivery. They could save guarantee as a single item (i.e., so you so much money, in fact, that you many rooms reserved until such- consider changing your storage ar and-such a date).