Course summary

This negotiation skills course is designed to help you strengthen your negotiation skills. Learning negotiation skills is a smart career move. Managers, consultants, service providers and salespeople can all benefit from becoming better negotiators.

Explore four principles of win-win negotiation. Learn how to plan and structure a negotiation – whether you’re negotiating individually or as a team. See the tactics professional negotiators use to get positive results from negotiations. Practise using a range of negotiation tools, so you can become a confident and assertive negotiator.

Aims

Becoming a confident negotiator can help you drive business success, resolve conflicts and get more of what you want in life. The techniques covered in this course can be used to:

• prevent other people dominating your negotiations
• keep your negotiations on track, so you get results which work for you
• prevent relationships being damaged by conflicts and disagreements
• build respectful, positive relationships
• eliminate any ‘bad habits’ which undermine your success as a negotiator
• become the most confident and successful negotiator you can be.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• plan your approach to negotiating in a range of contexts
• use the ‘principle based’ negotiation model to create win-win deals
• map all parties’ needs and concerns during a negotiation
• develop options and outcomes using win/win principles
• handle the ‘people’ side of negotiation
• respond to problematic situations which occur during negotiations.

Content

Introduction to negotiation

Explore the principles of win-win negotiation and how they can be used to create positive negotiation outcomes. Hear how four key principles can be used in everyday negotiation situations. Learn how to decide whether to take a distributive or integrative approach to a specific negotiation.

Planning your approach

Successful negotiations do not happen by chance; they require careful planning and active research. In this session, you will learn how to consider key factors like needs, concerns, walk-away points and desired outcomes to inform your negotiation strategy. You will also discover the meaning of terms such as BATNA and WATNA, and how to use them when planning professional negotiations.

Opening and framing the discussion

Master the art of opening and framing a negotiation, so you can set the scene for success. Learn how to set the tone for discussions, clearly articulate the purpose of your negotiation, and build rapport with your counterpart. Then learn how to use conversational framing skills to transition between the stages of the negotiation, and to wrap up the discussion with a clear deal or plan of action.

Identifying interests and concerns

Learn why understanding interests and concerns is a key step in any negotiation. See two key skills– questioning and active listening- being used by professional negotiators. Try out these techniques for yourself. Use a questioning template to lead a conversation about needs and concerns.

Exploring options

Discuss how creating win-win options increases your influence as a negotiator. Learn how to use five consensus-building tools to collaborate and 'expand the pie' when options seem hard to find. Tools you will cover include classic brainstorming, advanced brainstorming, what-if scenario building, expanding the pie, reframing and the 'rule of three' technique.

Mapping your strategy

A well-thought-out strategy allows you to negotiate with confidence and purpose. In this module, you will use a simple template to structure and sequence your offers. You will also learn how to prepare for counter-tactics and reframe objections as opportunities. By the end of this session, you will have the tools to control the pace of a negotiation and steer the conversation towards win-win solutions with ease.

How to put your learning to use

The practical focus of this course means that you use what you learn immediately. Negotiation skills can be used in business to agree on terms of employment (including your salary), sort out team conflicts, develop commercial contracts and set the price for goods and services. In your personal life, you can use the skills learned in this negotiation skills course to make major purchases, find fair solutions to family conflicts and handle neighbourhood disputes.

Prerequisites

None

Who this course is for

Suitable for all managers, team leaders, supervisors and individuals wishing to enhance their negotiation skills.

Delivery modes

• Face-to-face, presenter-taught workshop
• Online workshop via the platform Zoom

Delivery style

Delivered as an interactive workshop. It covers the why, what and how of negotiating in professional contexts and will be delivered through a variety of methods including:

• small group discussions
• role-plays or simulations
• written exercises in which you will apply key concepts
• Q&A sessions with the trainer.

You will get the most from this course if you are:

• willing to contribute to group discussions
• confident communicating verbally in small groups
• comfortable participating in role-play style activities.

Materials

Course notes are provided electronically using Dropbox.