When preparing to negotiate, always take time to consider these important questions:

What’s my BATNA – my walkaway option if the deal fails?

What are my most important interests, in ranked order?

What is the other side’s BATNA, and what are his interests?

Careful analysis, estimation, and conversations with colleagues will help you answer the first two questions.

Next, contemplate the other side’s BATNA and interests as thoroughly as you did your own.

After all, you may not be able to propose a package that he’ll accept if you haven’t thought about his outside options, needs, and wants. In addition, be sure you have a mandate from your superiors to explore options for mutual gains.

Finally, get ready to propose packages that exceed the other side’s BATNA (if only slightly), meet his interests reasonably well, greatly exceed your BATNA, and elegantly meet your interests.

By preparing to propose multiple packages at the same time, in the spirit of Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton’s cautioning people to “separate inventing from deciding” in Getting To Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, you can avoid having an early feeler misconstrued as a final offer.

Design each package to probe your estimates of the other side’s BATNA and interests. All this preparation makes it more likely that the parties will find items of differing value that can be traded to create value.