Negotiation Skills Jeopardy

This list of topics to be discussed, often shared in advance, sets the order of a negotiation.

What is an agenda?

Before talks begin, it pays to identify this person on the other side who has the final say.

Who is the decision-maker?

Rehearsing a negotiation with a colleague acting as the other side is known by this hyphenated term.

What is role-playing?

Good preparation includes listing these, the things you are willing to give up in exchange for something you value more.

What are concessions?

To prepare for a salary talk, you might check the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by this federal agency.

What is the Bureau of Labor Statistics?

In a job search, having this in hand from another employer is a classic example of a strong alternative.

What is a competing job offer?

Your walk-away point is also called this price, the least favorable deal you would still accept.

What is the reservation price?

This four-letter acronym names the range between the two sides' walk-away points where a deal is possible.

What is ZOPA?

Fisher and Ury warn that this, a rigid worst acceptable outcome fixed in advance, can stop you from seeing better options.

What is a bottom line?

The counterpart to BATNA, this acronym names the worst alternative to a negotiated agreement.

What is WATNA?

A buyer's opening offer set far below fair value is known as this kind of offer.

What is a lowball offer?

Rather than haggling from an extreme opening number, you can re-anchor by making this, your own proposal in response.

What is a counteroffer?

When a first offer is accepted instantly, the feeling that you gave away too much is named for this 'curse' from auction theory.

What is the winner's curse?

Amos Tversky and this psychologist described the anchoring effect in a 1974 paper on judgment under uncertainty.

Who is Daniel Kahneman?

Making three or more offers at once, each equally acceptable to you, is known by this four-letter acronym.

What is MESO?

Asking this one-word question is the simplest way to uncover the interest behind a position.

What is why?

In Getting to Yes, two sisters split this fruit in half, though one wanted only the fruit to eat and the other only the peel for baking.

What is an orange?

The first principle of Getting to Yes is to separate these from the problem.

What are the people?

In Getting to Yes, two men in a library argue over whether to open this until the librarian asks each what he really wants.

What is a window?

Getting to Yes urges insisting on these, such as market value or expert opinion, instead of a contest of wills.

What are objective criteria?

Borrowed from police interrogation, this tactic has one negotiator play tough while a partner plays friendly.

What is good cop, bad cop?

Letting a pause hang after an offer, so the other side rushes to fill it, uses this tactic.

What is silence?

Asking for one small extra concession just after the deal seems closed is known by this word for a small bite.

What is the nibble?

Visibly reacting with shock or a wince to the other side's number is this tactic, named for a physical recoil.

What is the flinch?

Common in recruiting, this kind of offer expires within hours or days to pressure a quick yes.

What is an exploding offer?

In 1803 the United States paid France about $15 million for this vast territory.

What is the Louisiana Purchase?

In 1867 Secretary of State William Seward agreed to buy this territory from Russia for $7.2 million.

What is Alaska?

A 1962 standoff over Soviet missiles on this island ended with a deal that quietly included removing US missiles from Turkey.

What is Cuba?

Jimmy Carter hosted Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin for 13 days in 1978 to reach these agreements.

What are the Camp David Accords?

Negotiated at an Air Force base in Ohio in 1995, these accords ended the war in Bosnia.

What are the Dayton Accords?