Effective Negotiations: Skills And Techniques

It is a fact that many people have jobs which require negotiating skills and techniques but have never been trained. Consequently negotiations are often difficult and sometimes even damaging.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to most negotiators is the amount of power they actually have—even when they perceive they have none!  It is knowing this that keeps good negotiators from leaving money (or goods or terms) on the table. Too often we allow our aversion to conflict or concern about offending a customer drive our negotiations. That is usually a recipe for a bad deal.

The fact is most of us are negotiating all day without thinking about it—everything from getting the teenager to take out the garbage to signing a lease. Our Effective Negotiations approach works in every environment, from sales to performance management and balances skill with empathy to produce solutions that endure and are satisfying to both parties.

Developing superior negotiating skills—that produce results--can help your business achieve important benefits:

• reduced anxiety for negotiators about the negotiation process no matter which side of the table they are on
• the ability to “think like the other side” to find breakthrough solutions
• the skill to create additional options when things are at an impasse
• the confidence to push for what makes sense without anxiety

Effective Negotiations Training highlights:

• What’s at stake in every negotiation—the relationship and the terms
• Getting behind the other side’s wants to their needs
• How to imply flexibility and unfreeze discussions
• Why to insist that “everything is on the table” (because it is!)
• How to have a firm BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Solution)
• How to “go to the balcony” to see the discussion objectively
• How to capitalize on the power you have in any negotiation
• How to develop fresh options that open up possibilities
• How to hang in there for a deal that will endure and is fair to both sides
• Lessons from “the other side” (what your opponent is thinking)

Effective Negotiations Methodology

Participants in Effective Negotiations spend most of their workshop time in practices with coaching and feedback in P2P Videolabs^™ – AlexanderHancock’s trademarked process for rapid development of business communication skills. They bring their own real situations to use in the practice sessions.

Participants in Effective Negotiations practice actual sales/service interactions and receive feedback from the facilitator and peers.  They gain insight and skills through customized exercises and case studies.

Effective Negotiations Customized Solutions

To ensure that training is not just an “event,” but instead produces enduring results, we customize Effective Negotiations to fit your unique situation, business strategy, culture, and people.  After discussion with you and other experts within your organization, we select the emphasis, specific skills to be developed, key learning points, exercises, and case studies for practice to create a solution tailored just for you.

Effective Negotiations Applications

The following are some of the ways our clients have used custom versions of Effective Negotiations

• To improve negotiations when dealing with a “single source” vendor
• To help purchasing agents improve terms when price is not negotiable
• To improve discussions with employees in order to avoid unionization
• To give sales representatives tools to avoid negotiating only on price
• To build a customer service environment that saves relationships

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