Negotiation shows up everywhere in your career, from salary conversations and project scope to timelines, budgets, and stakeholder alignment. With the right negotiation strategies, you can walk into these moments feeling prepared and clear on what you want to achieve, even when the conversation carries pressure. The goal is simple: reach an agreement that makes sense, protects your interests, and keeps work moving forward.
Strong negotiation skills come from using a repeatable process, not relying on instinct. When you set your range, ask better questions, and choose the right tactic for the situation, you negotiate with more confidence and better outcomes over time. This guide breaks down 10 practical strategies you can apply immediately, whether you’re early in your career or stepping into bigger responsibilities.
Top 10 negotiation strategies
1. BATNA-first planning
BATNA stands for Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. It’s the standard you use to judge any offer, and it keeps your decisions grounded in reality instead of pressure. Write your BATNA before the conversation, strengthen it if you can, and be ready to walk away from deals that don’t beat it.
2. Set a reservation point
Your reservation point is the worst deal you will accept. Decide it in advance so you don’t concede under time pressure or drift into an agreement you regret later. This matters in vendor renewals, internal resourcing, title and scope discussions, and any conversation about compensation.
3. Map the ZOPA
ZOPA stands for Zone of Possible Agreement. It’s the range where a deal can work for both sides, because your acceptable range overlaps with theirs. To find the ZOPA, estimate your range using your reservation point, infer theirs using real constraints, and ask questions that surface limits rather than preferences. In international business strategy, ZOPA work often depends on payment terms, delivery risk and regulatory exposure.
4. Use principled negotiation
Principled negotiation is built on four moves: separate people from the problem, focus on interests not positions, generate options, and use objective criteria. It helps you stay constructive even when the stakes are high, especially when you need implementation to run smoothly afterward. Start by clarifying interests, use benchmarks or precedent to reduce opinion battles, and document what’s been agreed. Business ethics are key here, with objective criteria lowering any incentive to misstate facts.
5. Make MESOs
MESOs stands for Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers. Instead of presenting one package, you offer a few options that work for you, then learn what the other side values based on what they choose. It’s useful in commercial terms and internal negotiations because it signals preparation and encourages collaboration without turning the conversation into a standoff. Experiments have found that offering choice through MESOs can improve outcomes and create a more cooperative climate.
6. Logroll across priorities
Logrolling means trading across issues based on different priorities. You give ground on what matters less to you and ask for what matters more, which makes deals easier when you’re negotiating multiple moving parts. Rank your issues privately, ask what the other side values most, and trade explicitly so concessions stay balanced and intentional. This is a great way to negotiate while maintaining social capital – remember people are more lenient when you trade fairly instead of forcing one-sided concessions.
7. Use contingent agreements to handle uncertainty
When disagreement comes from uncertainty about the future, a contingent agreement can move things forward. Instead of arguing about forecasts, you build terms that adjust based on measurable outcomes. In business, this shows up in performance-based pricing, milestone-based scope changes, delivery incentives, and review clauses tied to results.
8) Control anchors with evidence
Anchoring is the effect where the opening figure shapes the entire negotiation. If you open with a number, you set the ballpark, be it high or low. The same is true if the other side anchors first. Anchor with a rationale that holds up, stay within a defensible range, and if their anchor is extreme, ask for the basis before you counter.
9) Use bracketing to narrow large gaps
Bracketing means using ranges instead of single numbers to narrow distance and move past impasse. It’s usually framed as a conditional move, such as shifting toward a midpoint if the other side moves too. Keep it disciplined by tracking the implied midpoint, treating brackets as signals not commitments, and returning to objective criteria when the numbers start to drift.
10) Run a post-settlement settlement
A post-settlement settlement is a second pass after you already have an acceptable deal. You keep the current agreement as a fallback, then explore improvements that make both sides better off. Confirm the existing deal stands, ask whether there’s a change that would improve it for both sides, and only adopt the update if both parties prefer it. The concept is discussed in negotiation research and is often linked to work by Raiffa and Bazerman and coauthors.
How can you improve your negotiation skills?
Negotiation skills build when you treat each conversation as a repeatable process. You prepare your range, ask questions that surface real constraints and choose negotiation strategies that fit the situation. Over time, you rely less on instinct and more on simple structure that holds up in high-stakes moments.
Good negotiation tactics in business also make your work easier after the meeting ends. Clear terms reduce rework. Clean negotiation techniques reduce friction between teams.
That’s where “winning” becomes practical: decisions move faster because people know what was agreed and what happens next.
If you’re focused on how to negotiate salary, how to negotiate on salary or how to negotiate a raise, the same approach applies. Anchor your ask in evidence, negotiate the full package and stay clear on what you’ll accept. At IE Business School, you develop these skills in real business contexts, with people who will challenge your assumptions and push you to negotiate with clarity, discipline and intent.
Benjamin is the editor of Uncover IE. His writing is featured in the LAMDA Verse and Prose Anthology Vol. 19, The Primer and Moonflake Press. Benjamin provided translation for “FalseStuff: La Muerte de las Musas”, winner of Best Theatre Show at the Max Awards 2024.
Benjamin was shortlisted for the Bristol Old Vic Open Sessions 2016 and the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2023.
