Bargaining for Advantage

“Bargaining for Advantage” is a book written by Professor G. Richard Shell of the Wharton School Executive Negotiation Workshop at the University of Pennsylvania. The book offers a general perspective on negotiation through what Professor Shell calls “Information-based Bargaining”. He states that there are too many situational and bargaining strategies for a single strategy to work in all cases.

Shell first explains the six foundations of effective negotiation to include the following:

• Your Bargaining Style

• Your Goals and Expectations

• Authoritative Standards and Norms

• Relationships

• The Other Party’s Interests

• Leverage

Professor Shell states that one cannot effectively plan bargaining strategies and responses if one does not know “what your instincts and intuitions will tell you under different conditions.” Shell gives four broad strategies that negotiators use to improve their results:

• Willingness to prepare – Preparation before bargaining always provides better results.

• High expectations – You have the best chance at attaining your highest goal if you have it in mind prior to bargaining

• Patience to listen – Listening allows one to gain information, which is power in bargaining.

• Commitment to personal integrity – Trust is the based upon which a settlement can be attained. If one does not have a commitment to personal integrity in bargaining, they will never have the ability to elicit trust from the other party.

Shell stresses the need to set a goal and to set it sufficiently high so that it can be attainable. He references research that indicate higher results from bargaining if a high attainable goal is set prior to negotiation. He specifically mentions that others recommend also going into the negotiation with a bottom line figure, but argues that those who enter into the negotiation with just a bottom line typically enter into negotiations to reach the bottom line result as opposed to the higher value goal. He...