The three ways you can influence a negotiation

I like to think of this as a three-layer cake:

1. at the top you have your role, i.e. the power/strength you have from the role you represent. For example, a CEO of a company will naturally have more "bargaining power" compared to an employee further down the organization. But power in terms of your role alone will not make you a successful negotiator. It's great to have, but only as a complement. You need more layers of the cake to support you to reach your maximum potential.

2. The middle layer is your BATNA. As outlined in previous posts, your BATNA is a big contributor to how successful you will be in a negotiation, the better BATNA you have the more you can push in your primary negotiation. But if you don't know how to use your BATNA, or develop one, it serves no purpose. This brings us to the last, bottom layer of the cake.

3. The bottom of the cake that supports the other two layers, and without it you will never be able to reach the full potential of your negotiations, is the power of knowledge or the psychological power. Simply having the knowledge of how to conduct a negotiation. This is key and gives you enough 'negotiating power' even if you lack one or two of the other layers.

However, always aim to bring as many layers of the cake as possible into a negotiation and evaluate what you think your counterpart will bring to the table.