Best Negotiating Practices®
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A comprehensive learning resource for expert negotiation.
Watershed Best Negotiating Practices® (BNPs)
Watershed’s 22 Best Negotiating Practices, or BNPs, are the skills, behaviors, and strategies to implement as you negotiate. Several BNPs are useful in multiple stages of Collaborative Negotiations. Applied with discipline, the BNPs produce predictable and repeatable results. Master Negotiators in all cultures consistently adhere to these BNPs in their critical Negotiations.
- BNP 1: Everyone is a negotiator and everything is negotiable
- BNP 2: Believe in win-win, mutual gain. Win-win is an attitude
- BNP 3: Use the power of listening
- BNP 4: Build in time and be patient
- BNP 5: Keep things positive, and when they attack, hold your fire!
- BNP 6: Prepare, prepare, prepare
- BNP 7: Beware of your assumptions
- BNP 8: Set the stage: Focus on trust, relationships and interests
- BNP 9: Don’t forget the warm-up. Start slowly
- BNP 10: Understand their interests early
- BNP 11: Develop a joint agenda and begin with easier issues
- BNP 12: Think big and ask for what you want
- BNP 13: Be ready to challenge first offers
- BNP 14: Never say “No” or “Yes”
- BNP 15: Use your concession pattern to communicate your message
- BNP 16: Use the power of The Negotiator’s Probe to explore and create options
- BNP 17: Trade painless concessions
- BNP 18: Use the power of legitimacy and objective criteria
- BNP 19: The most powerful thing you can do is make offers and proposals
- BNP 20: Summarize early and often
- BNP 21: If you reach impasse, handle it gracefully to avoid deadlock
- BNP 22: Always thank them
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