- Develop self confidence when negotiating
- Present your arguments in a highly persuasive manner
- Learn planning strategies for anticipating the other side’s demands
Overview
This programme provides practical help to enable professional people to grasp the mindset of an expert negotiator. The training is based on applying Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques to the negotiation process and during the course discoveries will be made as to how to consistently achieve a win/win situation in negotiations.
Learning objectives
- Understand how your beliefs can affect your ability to negotiate effectively
- Explore the nature of the different types of negotiation from Lose/Lose to Collaboration
- Gain a ‘toolbox’ of influencing skills that will mean that you can achieve consistently good results in your negotiations
- Master a four-step planning process so that you will be fully prepared for the negotiation
- Learn how to control the face-to-face meeting using the Deal Making Process ™
Who should attend?
People with some experience of negotiation who wish to further develop their skills.
Day 1
The inner game of Negotiation
The phrase the ‘inner game’ is a term borrowed from sports psychology. It is a reference to the fact that what is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance. Here we consider the role perception and beliefs of expert negotiators.
- Examining your current beliefs
- Reviewing expert beliefs
- Making changes that you feel are appropriate for you
Pairs exercises: applying the Affirmation Technique
Day 1 (cont)
Understanding the other party’s needs
Learn how to ask high quality questions that map out precisely the other party’s needs and requirements. This ability to empathise with the other party and ‘map out’ their issues is at the heart of an effective negotiation process.
- The Logical Levels Concept
- Moving up logical levels
- Moving across logical levels
- Moving down logical levels
- Softeners
Pairs exercises: conducting Logical Level Interviews
Day 1 (cont)
The Negotiation Planning Process™
The planning process involves setting out the goals for the negotiation, gathering some facts (what we call building a database) and then analysing the data to uncover key issues.
The seven stages of the Negotiation Planning Process that we use at BMC are:
- Build a database
- Examine BATNA’s
- Mapping the issues (highlighting variables)
- Setting objectives
Case study: planning a negotiation
Day 1 (cont)
Setting the scene
This aspect of the course involves covering all the administrative arrangements that relate to the negotiation meeting. namely;
- Agreeing the agenda for the meeting
- Considering our opening position
- Planning to meet people’s expectations
- Developing a timetable
- Briefing the team
Case study: ‘setting the scene’ for a negotiation
Day 1 (cont)
The ‘Deal Making’ Meeting Process™
The four steps of the face-to-face meeting process are described by a mnemonic, where each letter in the key word ‘deal’ represents a stage in the meeting:
- Discuss the Agenda
- Explore Logical Levels
- Analyse Possible Deals
- Link to the Closing Position
Case study: conducting a negotiation
Day 2
Four expert behaviours
The ability to influence and persuade is the key competency of advanced negotiators. Here we cover four behaviours that research shows are used by experts much more frequently than by their more ‘average’ counterparts.
- Asking Questions
- Finding common ground (matching and leading values)
- Summarising
- Behaviour labelling
Group exercise: practising developing common ground
Case study: planning and conducting a negotiation
Day 2 (cont)
Four key skills
Understanding how expert negotiators use assertive tools to put their point of view across in a firm, persuasive manner, and also how they deal with hostile and aggressive behaviour.
- Reading body language
- Three Step Technique
- Broken Record Technique
- Feel, Felt, Found Technique
Group exercise: practising the Three Step Assertive Technique
Case study: planning and conducting a negotiation
Day 2 (cont)
Breaking deadlocks
Reviewing some of the tools that we can use to regain momentum if the conversation becomes stuck or bogged down on a particular issue. Including:
- Chunk up – chunk down
- Negative consequences
- Counter example
- Time out
- Car parking
- Metaphor
- Escalation
- Arbitration
Pairs exercise: discussing how to apply the tools to ‘real life’ issues.
Day 2 (cont)
Dirty tricks
Understanding some of the ‘dirty tricks’ that unscrupulous negotiators sometimes use to try and gain the upper hand – and how to counter them.
- Common tricks (e.g. good cop, bad cop)
- Counter measures
Case study: dealing with dirty tricks
Customisation
All our programmes are run on an in-house basis and (where appropriate) we conduct interviews and facilitate focus groups to gather information with which to write bespoke case studies that precisely reflect the culture and work environment of the participants.
Feedback
Feedback is based upon peer review using a Boulden assessment checklist. Completing the assessment checklist is not only valuable to the people involved in a given case study, it also helps those completing them to gain an in-depth understanding of the building blocks that make up an excellent negotiation meeting.
Course structure
There is an option of following the workshop with a three month long Action Learning project to link the lessons from the training back into the workplace. If this option is selected there is a closure workshop at the end of the project phase where delegates present how they have applied the techniques learned on the course into their daily work routines.
Remote Training
All of our workshops can be delivered as Remote Training via e-learning modules plus Zoom based virtual workshops. Please see our Virtual Training page for more information.
