Negotiation

Negotiation Skill

Codifies deal intelligence behavior. Use when reviewing any offer or designing how an agentic system should analyze and counter-propose. The full crystallized skill set lives in references/skills.md.

Triggers

Skip when:

• The change is descriptive ("explain how anchoring works") rather than applied. Use a knowledge response, not the skill.
• The artifact is not an offer or counter (e.g., a status update).

Process

Apply the RADAR protocol in order. Skipping a step is the most common failure mode and the rule against it is load-bearing.

Phase 1: Read

Extract every term in the offer. List anchors, hedging, urgency signals, omissions. Do not interpret yet.

Phase 2: Analyze

Map ZOPA, BATNA, information asymmetry, value gap. Quantify the gap in dollars before any qualitative language. See references/skills.md Skill-Negotiation-001.

Phase 3: Design

Draft PCP framing (Perception, Context, Permission) before producing a number. Whoever defines the frame controls the negotiation. See Skill-Negotiation-003.

Phase 4: Assess

Run the invisible-disadvantage check. Compare risk of countering vs. accepting. Apply the anchor-first decision rule (Skill-Negotiation-008) and BATNA discipline (Skill-Negotiation-009).

Phase 5: Review

Produce a DRAFT counter with explicit human approval gate. Specific closing pattern from Skill-Negotiation-010 applies once verbal agreement is reached.

Verification

Output is acceptable when ALL of the following hold:

• Offer net value, achievable value, and gap are quantified in dollars (Skill-Negotiation-001 implementation block).
• At least one written-signal observation from Skill-Negotiation-007 is cited if the offer arrived in writing.
• Counter-proposal carries PCP framing in the output, not just a number (Skill-Negotiation-003).
• BATNA worksheet (Skill-Negotiation-009) is filled before the first counter goes out.
• Bundling rule (Skill-Negotiation-005) is honored: no single-dimension concession appears in the counter.
• Final output is marked DRAFT and waits for explicit human approval before sending.
• If routed through an agentic system, the negotiation analysis runs on a senior-tier model (Skill-Negotiation-006).

Anti-Patterns

• Reactive countering: producing a number before completing Phase 1 (Read) and Phase 2 (Analyze). Frame is then defined by the other party.
• Single-dimension concessions: trading price without extracting value on another dimension. Drains leverage item by item.
• Matching urgency: accepting tactical deadlines as if they were genuine. Slow down and require external justification.
• Mid-negotiation BATNA drift: relaxing the walkaway under sunk-cost pressure. Pre-commit in writing; require 24h delay for any adjustment.
• Routing to a junior model: model capability gap is the only variable that consistently changes negotiation outcomes (Project Deal). Prompt style does not compensate. See Skill-Negotiation-006.
• Verbal-only close: leaves the deal exposed to remorse and selective memory. Always confirm in writing within 1 hour (Skill-Negotiation-010).

Extension Points

• New domain (insurance, M&A, etc.): add a domain-specific reference under references/ mapping the domain's leverage points onto the 10 skills. Do not edit the canonical skill list.
• Behavioral framework swaps: the PCP framing, comfort/discomfort signal table, and BATNA worksheet are pluggable. Replace via a sibling reference if a different model fits the domain better.
• Agent integration: when wiring the skill into an agentic system, include model_tier: opus (or equivalent senior tier) in the agent template.

References

• references/skills.md: full canonical 10 crystallized skills with implementation patterns, evidence citations, and tags.
• Source citations: Fisher and Ury Getting to Yes, Voss Never Split the Difference, Navarro What Every BODY Is Saying, Hughes Six-Minute X-Ray, Cialdini Influence, Galinsky/Mussweiler/Chen anchoring research, Anthropic Project Deal (Dec 2025; internal research, data not publicly available for audit; specific dollar values illustrative).