The Art Of Negotiation Skills

Have you ever negotiated in your life?? I bet all of you have done it especially when you want to buy something. Not only that, we also negotiate with our parents, friends, teacher and others. There are two types of negotiation which is distributive negotiation and integrative negotiation. Distributive negotiation is the condition where two or more parties compete over distribution of a fixed sum of value while integrative negotiation involved parties that cooperate to achieve maximum benefits.

There are four fundamental concepts in skilled negotiation which are:
1. BATNA (best alternative to negotiate agreement)- a preferred course of action in the absence of deal
2. Reservation Price- the least favorable point at which one will accept a deal.
3. ZOPA (Zone of possible agreement)-the set of agreements that potentially satisfy both parties.
4. Value creation thru trades – each party gets something it wants in return for something it value much.

This skills must be used when we want to start negotiate in order to gain what we aim.
During this session, we were given 3 different cases and we were divided into 6 group. Each group was given a role to play. We had selected the negotiator and discuss our BATNA, reservation price and other issue. Then, we play a role and start to negotiate. The ‘drama’ was very interesting and I do not even know that they have talent in acting. The most important thing is, the knowledge that I gain from the ‘drama’. They are too emotional and keep on arguing during the negotiation and because of this, they did not have any deal and fail in their negotiation. But for the other group, with the skills of BATNA and ZOPA, the negotiation went well and they came out with a good deal.

Besides that, the negotiation also failed due to some barrier to agreement. Example of the barrier such as lack of trust, informational vacuums, negotiator’s dilemma, spoilers, differences in gender and culture, difficulties in communication and others. All we have to do is sharpen our negotiation skills and be an effective negotiator. We should prepare thoroughly and uses negotiating phase to prepare further.