see how our workshops provide immediately applicable SKILLS.
As part of our Public Schedule portfolio, STL offers a Negotiation Skills Course to a range of organisations, from banking and finance to one of the leading on-line global travel companies.
What they have in common is that they have identified a ‘negotiation skills profile’, namely employees who are progressing into a more challenging role; be that in sales, management, leadership or business development.
Each of them has one goal in mind, which is to become better at negotiating contracts, timelines, milestones and new business, in order to gain a competitive edge in their respective industries and increase productivity.
Benefits
Their HR/Learning and Development departments choose this particular course because they want to employ techniques and strategies to negotiate more successfully with others, achieve a win-win situation that addresses the needs of both parties, rather than making compromises or concessions, whilst at the same time preserving the relationship.
Amongst other things, they are looking to:
- Gain a better understanding of the negotiation process, namely when to use different styles such as; transactional, collaborative and creative, and how to determine the best fit for each scenario
- Excel at the preparation and planning stage, which is key to success in all forms of negotiation. This means anticipating objections, which questions might arise and how best to tackle them
- Improve their communication style, so that it is geared specifically to the person/group they’re talking to
- Identify the best way to initiate, propose and achieve a win-win outcome by going in hard on the problem and soft on the people.
- Learn how to determine limits, address the power balance, learn deep-level enquiring and listening skills which will place them in a position of strength and increase self-confidence
- Apply contemporary, tried and tested tools and techniques to open, conduct and close negotiations successfully.
Principled Negotiation
We draw on cutting edge material at the forefront of negotiation techniques to accomplish this, including the following 4 principles, which come from the best-selling book ‘Getting to Yes’ by William Ury and Roger Fisher, members of the Harvard Negotiation Project:
- Separate the people from the problem
- Focus on interests, not positions
- Invent options for mutual gain
- Insist on using objective criteria
Learning Deliverables for Negotiators
Our adaptation of ‘principled negotiation’ avoids the usual bargaining, haggling, drawn-out discussions and dissatisfaction that often arise when both parties cannot agree on a win-win outcome.
Interesting research by Harvard Business School (Law), where Fisher still teaches, has shown this to be the most effective method by far for closing successful negotiations.
Principled Negotiation forms a powerful backbone to the course, which in addition to our proprietary materials makes for highly engaging discussions amongst the group. One of the main benefits of the course is the fact that delegates from different industries are able to openly sharing their thoughts, hopes, experiences and challenges around current corporate negotiation techniques.
A significant amount of role-playing activities and problem solving meshes with our materials, you can see light-bulb moments happening as delegates re-frame their current experiences and learn how they can put this to use to increase productivity and improve relationships in their individual areas of the business.
Two areas that come up time and time again are the need to preserve relationships and feeling uncomfortable with silences. These are both tackled in detail on the day. We also cover a range of scenarios familiar to all employees, such as negotiating a pay rise, time off and flexible working.
As the trainer, it’s always gratifying to facilitate Negotiation and Influencing Skills. With 80% of this course being practical, delegates emerge with a newfound confidence in their skills and often form lasting connections with peers from a large array of industries on these types of high-impact courses.
Feedback
From our Negotiation course London
“The Trainer has articulated a clear message of how to demonstrate extremely good negotiation skills. I found the course very interactive, which has been very beneficial. I will be able to use the skills I have gained and practice them in real life situations. I would recommend this course to other people.”
“I usually hate forced activities and role plays but Garret made me feel very comfortable from the start of the session. I think his enthusiasm is liberating and he really engages you. It wasn’t an overload of information and the relevant examples really helped me understand the theories behind negotiation.”
Finally…
As a trainer, developing negotiating and influencing skills is something that I am passionate about. This is one of our most popular courses, simply because we negotiate in every area of our lives. Having taught this course to delegates with a range of needs from those who negotiate multi-million-pound deals to those who simply acknowledge that they have skills-gaps at a most basic level, there is something for everyone in this course, and every individual viewpoint is thoroughly considered when delivering it.
For those who are ready to progress to the next level, we deliver an outstanding and highly effective Advanced Negotiation Skills Class which follows on naturally from this one.
