Negotiation Skills

Negotiation Skills

1 Behaviours of effective negotiators

Negotiators are not born – they are made. Negotiation is a skill set that can be learned and improved through a structured approach to defining the skills required and the application and assessment of these skills in subsequent negotiation situations. This session looks at the behaviours of effective negotiators and provides a benchmark against which participants can assess their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Setting up for success
• Positive behaviours to build on
• Negative behaviours to avoid

2 Planning your negotiation

Great negotiators tell us that work done before the negotiation starts is crucial to the outcome of the negotiation you will participate in. It is in this planning phase that the foundation is set to assess the results you achieve and create the flexibility that is necessary to arrive at a good outcome. Here we look at key planning techniques and approaches to help you get the best
results from your negotiation.
• The A.C.T.I.V.E ™ model of negotiation
• Creating the space to agree
• The paradox of structure

3 Techniques for persuasion

Negotiation is about persuading the other party to your perspective. Nothing works all of the time or with all of the people. Unfortunately, we tend to find an approach that works for us and it often becomes a barrier to a successful negotiation when it prevents us using other potential levers.
The effective negotiator uses a variety of mechanisms to move people towards their desired outcome: here we explore techniques which persuade – and look at how and when to use them.
• 6 keys to unlock agreement – how and when to use them
• The psychology of persuasion
• Interrogative influencing
• Unlocking value

4 Different negotiation styles
How do we come across in negotiation – what are our personal strengths and weaknesses? How can we negotiate with other people when we don’t know the effect we have because of the
behaviours we demonstrate and the ways these are perceived by other people? This session helps us hold a mirror up so that participants can reflect on their own style. We look at why other
styles irritate us – and how we negotiate with those people we it find difficult to deal with.
• How do we like to negotiate?
• The A,B,C,D,E of negotiating styles
• Personal strengths and weaknesses
• Why do other styles irritate us?
• How to negotiate with those people we find it difficult to deal with

5 Tips, tricks and traps

Negotiation is not just about doing things well. Great strides can be made by avoiding doing things badly. A few simple corrections to things that we do when we negotiate can make
a big difference to the results we get and the settlements we achieve. Most negotiators make the same mistakes. We identify the most commonly made mistakes in negotiation and identify strategies to overcome them.
• Common negotiating errors that catch the unwary and the unprepared
• Popular ploys which can be defused
• The top ten dirty tricks and how to deal with them

6 A negotiation skills audit

Negotiation is a skill learned and developed through practice. However, to improve it is important that we have a means of assessing how we did and what we could do better. Negotiators improve by constant evaluation of their performance. Here we provide a model to help you audit your
own negotiation style and identify the actions necessary to improve your performance in negotiation.
• A toolkit to help you audit your own negotiation style and identify the actions necessary to improve your performance in negotiation
• Identifying behavioural strengths
• Opportunities for improvement
• Continuous development and enhancement of your negotiation skills