Negotiate Without Fear

7Reinforce Your Message with a Multiple Offer

Often, we are afraid to make the opening offer because we fear that we will offend the other side, or that they will walk away. You can reduce this fear and deliver an offer that reinforces your compelling message when you go to the table with three offers rather than one. This chapter focuses on the strategy of making a multiple equivalent simultaneous offers, known as a MESO. We will discuss why you should use multiple offers rather than a single offer, and how to construct your MESO most effectively to convey your compelling message.

Starting the negotiation with three offers delivered at the same time will engage the other side in the discussion and make you look flexible and cooperative—which will enhance your ability to build your relationship with your counterparty. Leading with multiple offers will take the fear out of negotiation and provide many strategic advantages that we will discuss in this chapter. These advantages will enable you to both build your relationship with the other side and maximize your outcome when you leverage MESOs, rather than single package offers, throughout the negotiation.

What Is a MESO?

When you deliver a multiple equivalent simultaneous offer (MESO), you are providing multiple offers at the same time. I generally recommend that you deliver three offers. These three offers have relatively the same value to you, so they are considered “equivalent,” but it is likely that the other side will ...