How to Play “Friendly Hardball” in a Negotiation
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Tip
In any negotiation, your goal is to get what you want while maintaining a good relationship with your counterpart. In reality, this can be a tough tightrope to walk.
One technique that might help is to juxtapose what you can offer against the least your counterpart is willing to accept. In other words, you can ask something like, “How does my offer compare to your minimum price?” This may seem counterintuitive, but it can encourage the other person to make a less ambitious counteroffer, because they are reminded of the price that they were willing to settle for.
It’s important to do your homework ahead of time and figure out the “bargaining zone,” or the area between your baseline expectations and your counterpart’s. If you make an offer without considering the bargaining zone, you’re unlikely to be successful, no matter how you frame that offer.
Also, do your best to determine whether there are any preexisting offers on the table that might impact your counterpart’s walkaway price, and adjust your strategy accordingly. If your counterpart has more attractive other offers, your walkaway framing is less likely to work.
Before anchoring your counterparty, determine whether the issue in question is truly isolated, or may have implications for other issues. A premature offer pertaining to a single issue, even one that’s in your favor, may hinder you from finding tradeoffs between issues that could create even more shared value.
The walkaway-price framing technique will be especially effective when your counterparty has either no alternatives, or only weak alternatives. It’s important to keep in mind that if your counterparty does have a strong alternative offer, the walkaway-price method could backfire. However, if you’re confident that your counterparty’s existing options are limited, this strategy can be a simple though counterintuitive way to “play hardball” in your negotiation while maintaining a positive business relationship.
