MIST was approached by a publically traded spinal instrumentation company, and we are meeting with them soon to discuss development in our device. We really have no experience aside from a few audited Darden classes on negotiations, and would really appreciate if someone could give us or anyone else a crash course on it?
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.
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.
