According to the Persuasive Communications and Negotiation course, before a negotiation, the negotiator should make adequate preparations. These preparations include self-assessment, assessment of the other party and the situation assessment. First, the negotiator should complete self-assessment. The negotiator should clearly understand what he want, what his target point and reservation point are, what his alternatives are, and analyses, which is the Best Alternative to Negotiate analysis (BATNA) (Thompson, 2012). Second, the other party should be sized up, which includes other parties’ essential information, their interest, position and BATNA. In addition, in order to get a better result from the following real negotiation and make sure our negotiation strategy, the negotiator should also consider the different situation that will possible happen by answering the questions in situation assessment.
According Thompson (2012), the basic settlement of a negotiation is slicing the fixed pie. Under this perception, both of the parties will try their best to touch their target point. Using the pie-slicing strategies, the negotiator could easy make full preparation of what he should in the first step and then, with the well-prepared resources, the negotiator could make the first offer which act as an anchor point and correlate at least .85 with final outcome. Hold on, wait for the other party’s response, keep the target point in heart and plan concession. In negotiation, some guidelines a negotiator should also live by: consistency, simplicity, effectiveness, justifiability, consensus, generality, and satisfaction.
Beyond the fixed pie slicing, the negotiator could also expand the pie in order to get the win-win agreement. If the pie is expanded so much, then the negotiator might also get the ice cream, or a bonus on the top of his deal. Ask and gain what the counterparty want, present the package deals that benefit both