A business negotiation is numbers, engineering, logic and reason on the one hand, and psychology and feelings on the other. So, when you prepare yourself for a negotiation, don’t forget to set your mind and feelings in order. “Desperation doesn’t look good on anybody”.

It is so easy to get carried away in a negotiation. You can become so focused on closing the deal, that you allow yourself to get pushed back one step at a time. And if you are up against a good negotiator, they will certainly know how to push.

A BATNA will help you say no to a bad offer.

So, what is a BATNA? It is the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. In other words: if you won’t reach a deal, what’s the best thing you can do instead? That’s your BATNA.

At NCAB, we want to sell PCBs, but we don’t have the ambition to sell every PCB to every customer. We want to sell high-quality PCBs to customers who need them and can pay for them. We want to grow our business, absolutely, but there is no growth in accepting bad deals.

Walking away from a bad deal, is not a loss. And if we can do it in a way that builds a strong relationship with the customer for the future – it’s even a win.

At NCAB we take full responsibility, so as soon as we get an order, a lot of high-skilled professionals start working on it. These resources should not be sold at low prices. Strengthen your BATNA by thinking about how NCAB resources could be used better than losing money on one customer’s project.

Another way to make sure you have alternatives, is to know more than one person in the company. If you only know the purchaser, and it’s a difficult person, you’re stuck. If you have good relationships with people in engineering, production, sales, maybe they want to help, or you can find information to expand your ZOPA. If your customer is an EMS, maybe the ODM can be convinced to ask for NCAB as the PCB-supplier. Don’t get stuck with one person.

The purpose of the BATNA is to help you see when it is time to calmly walk away, and to never feel that your back is against the wall. Then it is easier for you to focus on what the other party is saying and doing, and it frees your mind to be creative and make the right moves.

So, to summarize, a good BATNA will help you:
– Keep your brain clear, even under pressure
– Not back down on what’s important to you and to NCAB
– Feel better throughout the process.

It’s like any dance floor – you need attitude and confidence!