Batna Watna Zopa

BATNA, WATNA and ZOPA
BATNA - Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
Negotiations will challenge you every day in business. First and foremost, you need
to be well prepared so that you appear confident and convincing. But what happens if
it looks like your demands will not be met? If, for example, your boss says "no" to
your salary expectations?
In this case, you should be able to retrieve your BATNA, which is your "Best
Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement." Example:
Employee Fred: Boss, I'd like a 10 percent raise.
Chief Simon: I'm sorry, that's not possible right now.
If you don't pull out your BATNA now, the conversation is over, you've lost the
negotiation, and you'll return to work disappointed. With your BATNA you propose
your Plan B, with which, even if it is not the best solution for you, you at least still
leave the negotiation as a winner and also satisfy your negotiating partner.
So, in the case of our example, it could go on like this:
Employee Fred: That's a pity. I have an offer from another company, where I'll get
10 percent more. But I would like to stay here.
Now boss Simon can consider: Does he give employee Fred more salary to keep him
because his work performance is important to him, or can he do without him and thus
without the salary increase? Even in the case of a dismissal, which he would actually
like to avoid, employee Fred goes home with 10 percent more salary. In this case,
the dismissal is therefore his BATNA.
My tip: For each negotiation, always prepare your BATNA in addition to your primary
negotiation objective so that you can pull it out of the drawer at any time.
WATNA - Your Worst Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
Analogous to BATNA, there is WATNA - the "Worst Alternative to a Negotiated

Agreement", i.e. for you the worst scenario you expect if no agreement is reached
with your negotiating partner.
Please do not make the mistake of assuming that you will never need your WATNA.
You will quickly be proven wrong and then be annoyed if you have not prepared for
the worst case as well as for your best case. Your advantage here is: If you know
your WATNA, you can more easily assess during the conversation whether you
should break off the negotiation or whether you still have a chance to achieve a
better result than the worst case, your WATNA, in the further course of the
negotiation. Let's return to our example:
Employee Fred can now terminate the interview and accept the result that he will not
get a salary increase. He has lost and received nothing, the worst case. However, if
employee Fred has already said to himself in advance that the worst-case scenario is
that he gets nothing at all, i.e. no salary increase at all, then he can continue to
negotiate and try to get something at all. If he manages to do that, even if it's just a
one percent increase in salary, he comes out of the negotiation the winner, because
he has more than he did before. Even if it's not the best scenario, it's still better than
the worst.
My tip: Be sure to prepare for your WATNA before you go into a negotiation. Even if
the "worst alternative" doesn't sound good, it is always useful to know it in order to
decide to what limit you are willing to go before you abandon the negotiation
altogether.
ZOPA - Your Zone of Possible Agreement
The so-called ZOPA can be a good tool in negotiations. However, one important
prerequisite must be met: you and all your negotiating partners must be open right
from the start and put your goals or demands on the table at the beginning of the
negotiation.
Why does this make sense? If all parties involved know all points of view, you can
quickly determine whether it is at all possible to reach an agreement between the
negotiating partners. Here again, we will consult our example:
If boss Simon is now open and honest he adds:
Chief Simon: I can pay you a maximum of 5 percent more.
Employee Fred now knows what his supervisor is willing to give. If employee Fred
now says that he can also move in this direction, there is a negotiating framework in
which the two can come closer. If his WATNA, i.e. his word-case scenario continues
to be that he achieves nothing at all, then he has already won with the 5 percent
offered. Chief Simon likewise, because he did not have to go over his ideas.
If, on the other hand, employee Fred says that five percent is too little for him, both of
you can broaden your scope of negotiation. Maybe boss Simon can't offer a higher
salary, but he can offer other incentives. In this case, the two may find another way
that makes each of them a winner. The goal of the ZOPA scenario is therefore to find
a BATNA for both sides that is better in every case than the WATNA, i.e. achieving
nothing and thus breaking off the negotiation.
My tip: As a rule, you will do best with a ZOPA scenario. Try to get your negotiating
partners to put their cards on the table at the beginning of your meeting. If you know
all points of view, you can work together towards an agreement, achieve a BATNA
for everyone and avoid a WATNA.
Source: https://www.managementcircle.de/blog/verhandlungsalternativen-batna-watna-
zopa.html

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BATNA, WATNA and ZOPA

BATNA - Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement

Employee Fred: Boss, I'd like a 10 percent raise.

Chief Simon: I'm sorry, that's not possible right now.

So, in the case of our example, it could go on like this:

Analogous to BATNA, there is WATNA - the "Worst Alternative to a Negotiated

Employee Fred: Boss, I'd like a 10 percent raise.

Chief Simon: I'm sorry, that's not possible right now.

Employee Fred: Boss, I'd like a 10 percent raise.

Chief Simon: I'm sorry, that's not possible right now.

If boss Simon is now open and honest he adds:

Chief Simon: I can pay you a maximum of 5 percent more.

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