Time to close doors?

Well yes there are, but it is something that should be used very and only after great consideration as you effectively might end up with no deal at all and potentially also damage whatever relationship you have built up with your counterpart.

The latter can be avoided if you carefully think through how you convey your message. As the good old saying goes, it’s not always what you say but how you say it that makes the difference. So starting to close doors should be considered primarily in one of two scenarios:

- You have reached your reservation point and basically see no point of continuing the negotiation unless you reach an agreement at this point. The topic of BATNA has been raised before but remember that the more you work on improving your BATNA the more possibilities you have. As such, you can then also allow yourself to actually close doors at an earlier point to make your counterpart agree to terms you find more favourable (provided your counterpart has not got a good BATNA. Hence the caution of using this method!)

- Your counterpart is being very reluctant to make any sort of commitments. By starting to close doors you will force your counterpart to take some action and the more time that has been spent negotiating the deal the higher the likelihood of your counterpart accepting what you are proposing out of the fear of loosing out, basic human nature.

But again, exercise caution with regards to closing doors, in the vast majority of all you negotiations you are much better off by leaving them open.