NEGOTIATION SKILLS

NEGOTIATION SKILLS

The cost of poor negotiation skills to the UK economy is estimated be somewhere in the tens of billions every year. It’s a mind-boggling amount that suggests a severe lack of real understanding in this area.

For individual businesses, the opportunity to succeed or fall short in negotiations is a daily occurrence. Negotiations can be straight forward or fiendishly complex. They can determine all manner of issues including discounts from suppliers, contract terms from clients, mergers and acquisitions, employment terms, industrial relations and agreements with regulators.

But one of the reasons why so many negotiators achieve under-par results is because they view the process in a narrow, two-dimensional way. For example, imagine you have to divide a single bowl of jelly and ice cream between two children. It might seem obvious to split it into two halves. But what if you knew that one child loved jelly above all else and the other loved ice cream more than anything. Equipped with that knowledge you could give them both what they wanted and end up with two even happier children. This simple explanation demonstrates that the practice of negotiation should be more than just bartering around entrenched positions. It shows that context, knowledge and insight into both the bigger picture and those sitting around the table achieve results.

Through practical exercises and role play simulations, our training teaches delegates about planning and structuring negotiations, managing conflict and dealing with emotion among other things. But chiefly, delegates learn to use their knowledge and innate strengths to create value, not just meet their counterparts halfway and then claim they have achieved the maximum value.

Working with world-renown negotiation expert Tim Cullen, and based on his highly acclaimed Oxford Programme on Negotiation at the Said Business School at Oxford University, you’ll learn techniques needed to reach advantageous agreements and recognise the value in fully understanding the motives and goals of counterparties.