You will be able to estimate whether a deal zone exists and roughly where it lies.
You know your own walk-away number now. The other side has one too, and they won't tell you what it is. Wei Ling's recruiter is not going to say, "We could go to S$5,900 if we had to." But that number exists, somewhere in a budget spreadsheet or in a hiring manager's head, and whether a deal is possible depends on how it compares with hers.
This lesson is about estimating the other side's limit, and seeing whether there's room for a deal at all.
Imagine a line of possible salaries. Wei Ling's reservation point from lesson 2.2 sits at S$5,500: she won't accept less. The company has its own reservation point, the most it will pay before it would rather hire someone else or leave the role open. Say that's S$5,900.
Any salary between S$5,500 and S$5,900 is better than both sides' alternatives. That range is the ZOPA, the zone of possible agreement. In this example it's S$400 wide. A deal inside it leaves both better off than walking away. Where exactly the deal lands inside it is what the rest of the negotiation decides.
Any negotiation with a number in it has the same shape, and two more examples with made-up figures show it. Picture a landlord who would rather accept S$2,950 than risk an empty flat, facing a tenant who would pay up to S$3,050 rather than move: their ZOPA is S$100 wide. A client willing to pay up to S$4,000 for a project and a freelancer happy to do it for S$3,400 have S$600 between them.
Sometimes the limits don't overlap. If Wei Ling had needed S$6,000 and the company could only reach S$5,900, there would be no salary both could accept. No amount of skilful talking fixes that on salary alone.
You have two honest choices when there's no overlap. The first is to add issues. Salary is one item. A sign-on bonus, an earlier pay review, extra leave, a better title or a training budget might bring the total package into a range both can live with, which is why module 3 lists every issue before you start. The second is to walk away and take your BATNA. That isn't a failure. It's the method working: it stops you from accepting a deal worse than your alternative.
What you should not do is pretend the gap isn't there and drift below your reservation point because the conversation felt friendly.
You can't see the other side's reservation point, but you can make an educated guess and improve it as you go. Start with their BATNA. For an employer, it's the next candidate, a recruiter's fee to find another, or leaving the role empty while work piles up. The weaker their alternative, the higher they'll go.
Then look for evidence. For a job, the company's own listing may show a salary range, and the top of a posted range is often near their limit, though not always. Salary guides and listings for similar roles show what competitors are paying, which affects how high the company must go to hire anyone. For a lease, comparable listings and how long they've stayed up show how quickly the landlord could re-let. For a supplier, other quotes show where their competitors would price.
Wei Ling sees that the company's own listing on MyCareersFuture shows a range of S$5,000 to S$5,900. She also learns, from a friend who works there, that the role has been open for three months. That suggests the company's BATNA is weak and it may be willing to pay at the top of its range. She estimates the limit at about S$5,900, and notes that it could be a little higher for the right person.
Treat the estimate as a guess you'll update. Every answer the other side gives in the conversation is new evidence. If the recruiter says "the range is firm", that tells you something. If they say "we'd need to get approval for anything above S$5,700", that tells you something different: S$5,700 may be the recruiter's limit, but not the company's.
Notice where this leaves Wei Ling. Her target from lesson 2.2 was S$6,200, above the company's estimated limit. That doesn't mean her target was wrong. It means she'll probably land near the top of the ZOPA on salary, and she might use other issues to get closer to the value she aimed for.
Keep your reservation point to yourself. If the other side learns it, the deal will land right on it, because they have no reason to go higher. Interests work the other way round, so share them freely, because they help both sides find options inside the zone, or create a zone where there wasn't one. Wei Ling can say she's keen on the role and that a clear path to a pay review matters to her. She won't say S$5,500.
For the activity, you'll draw the line for your own negotiation and mark three points on it, then shade the stretch where you expect a deal could land.
Draw a line marking your reservation point, your target and your estimate of their reservation point, and shade the likely ZOPA.
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