Negotiation Prep

Prepare any negotiation (salary, vendor, client) with your BATNA, walk-away point, anchor, concession plan, and lines to say out loud.

Prepare me for a negotiation.

What's being negotiated: [SALARY OFFER / RAISE / VENDOR CONTRACT / CLIENT RATE / DEAL TERMS]
The other side: [WHO + WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THEIR SITUATION, CONSTRAINTS, AND ALTERNATIVES]
What I want: [YOUR TARGET: number(s) and terms]
My alternatives if this falls through: [HONESTLY: the other offer, the current job, other vendors, "nothing right now"]
Market data I have: [COMPS, BENCHMARKS, QUOTES, or "help me list what to research"]
What they've said/offered so far: [THE CURRENT STATE, including any number already on the table]

Build my prep sheet:
1. **BATNA: mine and theirs.** My best alternative from my honest list (this, not my wishes, is my leverage), one action that would strengthen it before the conversation, and your best read of THEIR alternative to a deal with me, tagged [INFERENCE] where you're reasoning beyond my inputs.
2. **The three numbers:** walk-away point (derived from my BATNA: the number below which no deal beats my alternative), target (ambitious but defensible from my market data), and opening anchor (at or slightly beyond target, with the justification sentence attached; an anchor without a reason reads as a bluff). If a number is already on the table, the anchoring move changed: give me the re-anchor instead.
3. **The bundle**: everything in play beyond the headline number (for salary: bonus, equity, PTO, start date, review timing, remote terms; for deals: scope, timeline, payment terms, exclusivity). Rank by what's cheap for them and valuable to me: that's where deals expand instead of split.
4. **Concession plan**: my first concession (small, from the bundle, never the headline number first), what I ask for in exchange each time (never concede for free), and the pattern to avoid (equal-sized concessions signal there's always more).
5. **Scripts**: the exact words, conversational register, for: the anchor ("Based on [data], I was expecting something in the range of X"), responding to a lowball (silence + a diagnostic question, not an instant counter), the flinch-worthy question I fear most (tell me what it likely is), and the walk-away said without burning the bridge.
6. **Diagnostic questions**: 4-5 questions that locate their real constraints and reservation point ("what does the budget process look like for this?", "what would make this an easy yes on your side?").

Rules: everything builds from my stated situation, where my alternatives are weak, say so plainly and weight the prep toward strengthening them first; bravado on a weak BATNA is how people lose deals they needed.

How to use

This walks the Harvard Program on Negotiation playbook: BATNA before numbers, numbers before scripts. The market-range framing in the anchor script ('people with my profile typically earn...') is the PON-endorsed way to anchor high without sounding entitled. Rehearse the scripts out loud: negotiations are spoken, and the walk-away line especially needs to sound calm before it's needed.

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