Improve your BATNA before you negotiate
The best time to strengthen your walk-away position is before the negotiation starts, not during it.
Why it works
BATNA improvement before negotiation increases actual leverage — not just psychological confidence. Creating competing offers, developing alternative options, or reducing dependency on the counterpart changes the objective power dynamic. In-the-moment efforts to improve BATNA are often transparent and may signal weakness; pre-negotiation work happens invisibly and shifts the entire frame.
How to do it
- Before opening negotiations, actively develop competing alternatives: other buyers, suppliers, partners, or solutions.
- If alternatives are thin, invest time in creating them — even a plausible alternative in development strengthens your position.
- In career negotiations, this means having other conversations open before committing to any one; in business, having multiple qualified vendors before selecting.
Evidence
Negotiation research consistently finds that having outside options improves both objective outcomes and subjective confidence at the table. The mechanism is straightforward: alternatives set the floor and shift relative dependency. (observational)
The quality of alternatives matters, not just their existence — a weak or implausible BATNA does not provide real leverage even if it provides psychological confidence.
Sources
- Pinkley, Neale & Bennett (1994), "The impact of alternatives to settlement in dyadic negotiation", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Common mistake
Treating BATNA as fixed at the start of a negotiation — you can often create better alternatives if you invest the time before the table opens.
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More practices for BATNA: Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
- Identify your real BATNA before negotiations begin
Clarify exactly what you will do if no deal is reached — and whether that alternative is as good as you assume.
- Estimate your counterpart’s BATNA
Understanding what the other side will do if there’s no deal tells you where their pressure is — and how much room you have.
- Calculate your reservation price directly from your BATNA
Your walk-away point should be derived from your BATNA — not from your aspiration or your fear.
- Decide strategically whether to reveal your BATNA
A strong BATNA is worth revealing; a weak one is better concealed while you work on improving it.
- Walk away cleanly when the deal falls below your reservation price
Saying no to a bad deal — and meaning it — is the practice that gives all the others their teeth.