What Are Your Opponent’s Intrinsic Powers?

Intrinsic Negotiating Power: The Seven “Cursors of Power”

“Intrinsic power” is an objective strategic factor over which we have little control. In negotiations, you need to be able to analyze this power so as to take it into account when you calibrate the level of your demands. According to Roger Fisher and William Ury of the Harvard Negotiation Project, the intrinsic power of each negotiator resides almost solely in the quality of her best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA)—namely, her “best fallback solution” if negotiations should fail. Everything else is considered to be secondary.

We can identify seven strategic power factors in negotiations.

The Power of Size

The customer possesses significant ...

Get The Five Golden Rules of Negotiation now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.