Focus on the Other Side’s Interests Rather Than Stated Positions

It is almost always in your best interest to find a win-win solution for both parties, to complete a negotiation knowing that both sides are satisfied with the results. If the other party is dissatisfied, it can have negative consequences for you. For example, if a customer feels he was cheated, you will lose her as a customer and perhaps future customers because of her negative comments. If a new hire feels cheated out of a better salary, he may quit his job in a few months when he finds something else that pays more after you just invested time and money in training him. Leaving the other side feeling disgruntled, cheated, or deceived destroys relationships, which could be risky for your business.

The next step in preparing for negotiation is to imagine that you have to negotiate for the other side and develop a list of questions you should ask them. Put yourself in their shoes and do their homework. What questions will they ask your team? Be prepared to answer them.

Although it seems like the most important question to ask the other side is what they want, Roger Fisher states that there is another even more crucial question that looks at the underlying interests of the other party. Why do they want what they want? Walk a mile in their shoes and determine what you think motivates their stated positions.

You may already be familiar with this story, but imagine that one of your coworkers, Lisa, finds a bag of 30 oranges on sale at a local grocery store. She needs only 10 of them so she brings the remaining 20 oranges to the office to share with anyone who wants them. Both Karen and Anna decide they want them. After negotiating for a few minutes, they decide to each take home 10 oranges.

However, if they had focused on their interests (one wants just the peels and the other wants only the juice) instead of their stated positions (wanting the oranges), they would have been able to share the 20 oranges and achieve their goals. Karen wanted the oranges so she could squeeze fresh orange juice in her juicer. Anna wanted the oranges so she could grate the orange peels for an orange muffin recipe.
Since neither side asked the opposing side why she wanted the oranges, both Karen and Anna had to make a trip to the supermarket.
Anna’s recipe called for the rinds of 20 oranges and Karen needed enough juice for her family of five for breakfast, which also required the juice from 20 oranges. If they had focused on interests, they would not each have had to make a trip to the grocery store, and the peels of Karen’s oranges and the orange juice from Anna’s oranges would not have been wasted.

Don’t assume that every party’s interests and motivations revolve around money. Let’s assume that you own a small marketing research firm and are looking for a new project manager. You have completed the interviews and are in the process of negotiating an offer with a prospective candidate. When you offer him a salary of $50,000 a year, he states that he thinks you should offer him $55,000. When you ask him why he thinks he deserves $5,000 more than you offered him, you realize that money is not what is motivating him. He feels he should get an extra $5,000 in return for settling for the title of project manager. He has 10 years of project management experience and thinks he should have the title of project director instead of project manager. He is considering applying to an executive MBA evening program at the local university and feels that the title of project director would be viewed more favorably by the university. Once he has shared his true interests with you, you agree to give him the title of project director and agree to pay your new project director a salary of $50,000 a year.

Consider this example:

Boss: Based on our conversations over the past few days, I would like to extend an offer to you for $44,000 a year plus 10 days of vacation time and 5 sick days.

Employee: Well, I’m going to be honest and say that I am a bit surprised. I was expecting the offer to be closer to the $50,000 salary range.

Boss: Why were you expecting an offer of approximately $50,000?


Employee: Well, since I have been freelancing for the past few years, I have grown accustomed to having more time to go on vacations. I work hard for most of the year but I am also able to take a few weeks at a time to travel abroad. I will be unable to do much traveling if I have only two weeks of vacation time a year. So if I won’t be able to travel as much, I should at least make more money.

Boss: I see. How about this? I’ll throw in an extra week of vacation for the next three years so you’ll have 15 days of vacation time. In addition to those 15 days of vacation time, you will have 5 days of sick time. If you do not get sick during the year, you can use them as vacation days during the last quarter of the year. So, you could have up to 20 vacation days your first three years! And, if you work with me for three years, I’ll increase that to 20 vacation days plus 5 sick days. And, once a quarter, you can work 10 hours either Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday and take a long weekend off. I think that sounds fair. What do you think?

Employee: I think I’ll accept the offer—$44,000 sounds good as long as I have enough vacation time to travel.
Boss: Great, welcome aboard then!

At first glance it may appear that both parties want completely different things and have no interests in common. However, once you start to think about what motivates the other team and what their goals are, you will notice that sometimes both teams have more shared interests than opposing ones. Let’s go back to the example about the small marketing research firm owner and the newly hired project director. You, as the business owner, and your new employee have a few interests in common. First, you both want the company to perform well.

You both rely on your company’s sales to support your families. Second, you both want stability. You, the owner, want your company to grow and would like to keep your valuable employees; you do not want to lose them to the competition, so you offer them competitive salaries, vacation time, and benefits. Your new project director is also looking for job security. He doesn’t want to have to switch jobs and move his family every few years to get a competitive salary and benefits. Third, you are both interested in maintaining a good relationship with each other. You want your employee to be happy with his job so that he stays around, and your project director wants to be able to use you as a reference or for networking possibilities in the future.