Negotiation glossary
What is BATNA?
Updated 8 October 2026 · 4 min read
Your BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) is the best option you already have if this negotiation ends without a deal. Any agreement worse than your BATNA should be refused; any agreement better than it is worth considering.
The term comes from Getting to Yes (Roger Fisher and William Ury, 1981) and it answers one question: what happens to me if I say no? If you are negotiating a job offer and you hold a second offer at 110,000 euros, that second offer is your BATNA. Every proposal below it is a bad deal by definition, whatever the recruiter says about market rates.
Why it matters more than any tactic
Most negotiation advice is about behaviour at the table. Your BATNA decides how much of that behaviour you can afford. With a strong alternative you can anchor high, hold your position and let silences last. Without one, every concession you make is a rational response to fear, and the other side can usually sense it.
Three consequences follow:
- Improve your BATNA before you negotiate, not during. Getting a second quote or a second interview raises your floor more than any script
- Estimate the other side's BATNA. A landlord with two empty floors has a weak one; a recruiter with three candidates has a strong one. That estimate tells you how far you can push
- Never accept a deal below your BATNA to "save the relationship". A relationship built on you losing does not last
How to work it out in five minutes
- List every alternative you actually have (not the ones you hope for)
- Pick the best one and put a number or a concrete outcome on it
- Turn it into your reservation price: the point where the deal on the table is worth exactly as much as the alternative
- Write both down before the conversation starts, because your memory of them softens under pressure
A worked example
A freelancer is asked to quote for a three-month project. Her BATNA is a smaller client already offering 450 euros a day for the same period. She should refuse anything under 450 unless the new project brings something the alternative does not (a reference, a skill, a longer engagement), and she can open at 600 knowing she loses nothing if the talk fails.
BATNA examples by situation
| Situation | A typical BATNA | What it does to your position |
|---|---|---|
| Salary offer | A second offer, or staying in your current job | A written second offer is the strongest lever a candidate has |
| Buying from a supplier | Another vendor's quote for a similar service | Lets you hold your price; the gap in quality is what you trade on |
| Renewing a lease | Moving to another building, with its costs | Moving costs make the BATNA weaker than it looks: price them honestly |
| Raising money | Another term sheet, or growing on revenue for six more months | Founders without a second option tend to concede on terms, not only on valuation |
| Freelance rate | Another client, or time spent on prospecting | Even a smaller client sets a floor under your day rate |
BATNA, reservation price and ZOPA: how they fit together
The three terms describe one chain of reasoning. Your BATNA is what you will do without this deal. Your reservation price is that alternative expressed as a number for this deal. The ZOPA is the range where your reservation price and the other side's overlap. Get the first one wrong and the other two are wrong as well, which is why preparation starts with the alternative, not with the opening offer.
How to improve your BATNA
- Create a real alternative. Ask for a second quote, take the second interview, look at the other apartment. The best time to do it is before the first meeting
- Make it concrete. "I could probably find another job" is not a BATNA. "Company B offered 110,000 on Monday" is
- Weaken theirs, fairly. Their alternative is your competitor; showing what is different about your offer lowers its value in their eyes
- Check the cost of walking away. Switching costs, delays and risk reduce the value of an alternative; count them before you lean on it
Your BATNA and theirs
Negotiations are rarely decided by the stronger argument; they are decided by which side can more comfortably walk away. Estimate the other side's BATNA with the same care as your own: how many other candidates, suppliers or buyers they have, how urgent their deadline is, what failing would cost them. A recruiter who must fill the role by the end of the month has a weaker BATNA than the job advert suggests.
Some trainers also use WATNA (Worst Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) to describe what happens if things go badly without a deal. It is a useful check: if your worst case is acceptable, you can negotiate with more calm than someone whose worst case is not.
In a Negosim session the analysis report checks whether you held a floor or conceded past it; setting one before the first exchange is the single change that improves most players' scores.
Related terms
- Reservation price: Your reservation price is the least favourable terms you will accept before you prefer your best alternative (your BATNA). For a seller it is a minimum, for a buyer a maximum; it is the one number to fix before a negotiation and never to reveal during it.
- Walk-away point: The walk-away point is the point at which you end the negotiation and turn to your best alternative because any further concession would leave you worse off. It is your reservation price seen as an action rather than a number, and it only protects you if you set it before the conversation starts.
- ZOPA: The ZOPA (Zone Of Possible Agreement) is the overlap between what one side is willing to accept at most and what the other side is willing to accept at least. Every deal that will ever be signed lies inside it; when the two limits do not overlap, there is nothing to negotiate about.
- Bargaining power: Bargaining power is your ability to get the terms you want in a negotiation. It comes mostly from how good your alternatives are compared with the other side's, how much time pressure each side faces and how much each side knows; it is relative, not a fixed trait of a person or a company.
