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Mastering Negotiations

This confidence-building two day course offers practical tools and techniques to anyone who wants to improve their negotiation skills at work.

  • Classroom

    Course Details:

    Duration: 2 days

    Price: Please call 01844 211665 for pricing


    Next available course:

    For course dates and more information please call 01844 211665

Who is this course for?

Anyone seeking to improve their negotiation skills at work.

About the course

Most business analysts will engage in some form of negotiation in their workplace on a daily basis, whether it’s reviewing work priorities with a line manager or getting approval for a proposal, the opportunities to use negotiation skills are everywhere. This highly practical two day course is aimed at building participants’ confidence as a negotiator, by equipping them with practical tools and techniques to succeed in any negotiation situation they encounter, whilst maintaining good working relationships.

This course will help business analysts to:

  • Prepare and plan negotiations in a structured and professional manner
  • Understand how to structure a negotiation and maintain control of the phases and the agenda
  • Have the confidence to obtain the best agreement for the business
  • Know how to anticipate and deal with deadlock and produce resolution and agreement. 
How is the course structured?

To give you more of an idea of what you’ll learn and how the course will help you, here’s a quick guide to the 2 days.

Day
1
  • Introduction
  • Negotiation Skills Health Check
  • What is “Negotiation”?
  • Preparing to Negotiate
  • The Three Stages of Negotiation
  • How Decisions Are Made
  • Gaining Commitment
Day
2
  • Structured Negotiation Phases
  • Handling Win/Lose Approaches
  • Difficult Situations in Negotiation
  • Review & Close
Anything else?

A comprehensive course manual is provided and the course can be tailored to reflect the emphasis required by the customer.

Pre-Work

  • Review the workshop outline with manager and discuss specific areas of interest for personal development
  • Consider ‘real’ negotiation scenarios – what specifically would you like to improve?
Full course outline

Mastering Negotiations (a two-day workshop)

Course Content

Day 1

Introduction    

  • We begin by ensuring everyone has a clear overview of the aims and structure of the course. Participants also have the opportunity to identify and align their own specific learning needs.

Negotiation Skills Health Check

  • Through a practical team exercise, participants establish their existing level of negotiation skill level at the start of the course. This exercise helps everyone to discover their default approaches that may be helpful or unhelpful in a negotiation. 

What is “Negotiation”?

  • Each negotiation situation can often seem unique. In this session, participants will explore negotiation scenarios that are specific to their work and the typical challenges encountered. We discuss the different approaches needed when dealing with different personalities and types of stakeholder.

Preparing to Negotiate

  • This session will introduce a framework to help participants prepare for negotiations. The group will agree a checklist of key considerations when preparing to negotiate, which is applicable to their specific work environment. This checklist will help develop stronger levels of self-confidence, through understanding how to best structure a negotiation meeting.

The Three Stages of Negotiation

  • The three-stage negotiation model (Ideal – Realistic – Fall-back) is extremely useful in helping participants understand the outcomes that are possible for both themselves and the other party concerned. We will use this model during a practical exercise to ensure participants understand its application and the value it delivers.

Building Your Powerbase

  • A key goal in negotiations is to build more power/influence than you actually intend to use. In this session, participants will understand where power is derived in negotiations and learn strategies for enhancing their own power base, without alienating the other party.

How Decisions Are Made

  • The aim of every negotiation is to solicit decisions. This session gives participants an opportunity to identify how decisions are made, and which positive/negative, emotional/political and rational factors come into play. One of their key roles as a negotiator is to enable the other party to make a decision favourable to them – so we consider ways of achieving that.

Gaining Commitment

  • In this session, participants learn that it’s collaboration in negotiation that gets the best results. Compete breeds compete, and if there is a winner there must be a loser. Nobody likes losing, so competing in negotiations is guaranteed to affect working relationships. Participants learn that the ideal outcome to aim for is a WIN:WIN and how to balance the need to achieve a successful outcome, with the need to protect the relationship

Day 2

Structured Negotiation Phases

  • Consolidating the key learning from Day 1, we progress to looking at the key phases of negotiation and the opportunities for creating movement in the process. A key skill a good negotiator possesses is the ability to manage this agenda to produce an agreed outcome, by recognising key signals (verbal and non-verbal).

Handling Win/Lose Approaches

  • Some negotiations we encounter will be more adversarial in nature. These situations can be unnerving, if we’re unsure how to approach them. Our objective in Win/Lose negotiations is to therefore to develop trust to enable the other side to disclose their wants, needs and constraints so we can reach a mutually acceptable compromise.

Difficult Situations in Negotiation

  • In this length practical session, using a case study we make use of the models and frameworks introduced so far, together with a range of new tools for addressing difficult situations, for example:  dealing awkward people, handling with objections, saying “no”, managing pressure and breaking deadlocks. Finally, participants learn how to “be tough nicely”.

Review & Close

  • We review the key learning from the past two days and participants discuss how they intend to apply their learning action plans, and what support they will need to do so.

Presenters for this course

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Skills Shift