Crash Course on Negociations

My main takeaways from Darden's negotiation class (which you may have audited):

- List issues that are important to you. Not only what you want to get out of the agreement but also what you don't want to happen because of this agreement.

- Estimate your Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) through analyzing your and your opponent's target price, best alternative price (I can't emphasize enough how important this is in negotiation - alternative gives negotiators power), and reservation price.

- Know your source of power, your opponent's source of power, and ways you are going to use it in the negotiation.

- I heard Sogyel talked earlier about making the first offer - find below an article to back it up. I have done this in various negotiations (along with ZOPA analysis) including bargaining at the farmers market, negotiating compensation and benefit with employers, negotiation project cost with our designer - it usually works like magic, but I have also seen people walk away when the offer is way too high or way too low.

- Lastly, no matter how much you like the offer, always do a counter offer - according to some research not doing a counter offer will give dissatisfaction for both parties. Couldn't find the article to back this up, though.

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Not that I have any experience in medical device negotiations, but my thought is that your first meeting with them should not jump into any negotiations. Considering the complexity of your product, the long timeline, and the fact that this is your first approachee, I would take the first meeting to listen and learn to them, go home to research/think/crunch numbers, and then have a follow-up meeting once you have a clear strategy and goal. 

Also curious if you have an advisor or someone with more experience who could accompany you (not trying to discredit you but it's better to have a heavy hitter with you). 

You might also talk to an advisor or other mentor about a range of possibilities to expect.  I find when I talk to a company who may become a partner, it's easier to keep a level head if I have thought about some possibilities beforehand, even if a new possibility is presented I hadn't thought about.  Like Jason Brewster says, if you go to Vegas and sit at the Blackjack table, before the next card is drawn, think about what card you want to get (or what you would do with being presented different cards) so you are better prepared to react.  

But I love what Lyon says -- even if you think about it beforehand, don't go in talking about negotiations.  Just go in for a conversation about what a potential partnership might look like, and what you want out of it. 

And, don't forget to rock it!

I recently talked to Eric Pike, CEO of the Pike Corporation. He advised to be careful that a large company might want to "partnership" or "buy the technology" in order to kill it to maintain their own production lines. I think this is unlikely in our situation based on our preliminary contact and conversations with them, but does anyone have advice on how to look out for this?