In a situation where you have no alternative offer, it is easy to gain the impression that you must simply accept the offer of your counterpart. If this is the case, is there something a negotiator can do to maximise the potential of the negotiation?
Surprisingly, according to an article on the website of the INSEAD business school, mental simulation of potential alternative offers makes powerless negotiators more ambitious.
Use your imagination to boost your aspirations at the table
Mental simulation of an attractive alternative improves your confidence. The human imagination is powerful and there have been multiple studies conducted which indicate merely imagining an alternative offer has boosted negotiators’ aspirations. That motivated them to demand more from their counterparts and achieve better outcomes.
When people were instructed simply to imagine what it would feel like to have a good alternative offer and how high it would be, they did better in the negotiations.
Such a mental stimulus helps us to make an ambitious first offer. However, mental simulation doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes, it doesn’t yield a better outcome and can even potentially backfire.
How to make it work
- You shouldn’t imagine an unattractive alternative (creating a weak anchor only lowers your aspirations)
- If your counterpart makes the first offer or also uses this mental simulation, you will probably not succeed.
- Nor will a better alternative offer work if it is extremely difficult to find a mutually acceptable solution – for example, when there is no overlap of bottom lines. In such a scenario, a more ambitious offer is much more likely to result in an impasse.
-jk-