- Master the psychological aspects of effective deal making
- Learn how to set a positive tone for the face-to-face meeting
- Gain insights into influencing skills used by outstanding negotiators
Overview
Every year millions of dollars change hands on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, management buy outs, share issues and financial restructuring. The high stakes, extreme time pressure and psychological stress involved in these negotiations can and does cause mistakes to be made, as misunderstandings kill potential deals, deadlocks stifle opportunities and money is left on the table. This programme aims to give participants insights into the methods adopted by outstanding negotiators so that the risks of failure are reduced and the chance of signing win/win agreements are greatly enhanced.
Learning objectives
By attending this highly participative three-day course you will:
- Gain an insight into how to gain a win/win outcome
- Discover a powerful seven-step method for planning a negotiation
- Learn how to uncover the other side’s needs
- Acquire a ‘toolbox’ of tried and tested skills for breaking deadlocks
- Understand the ‘dirty tricks’ used by unscrupulous negotiators
Who should attend?
- Investment Bankers, Project Financiers and Syndicators
- Traders and Sales Directors/Managers
- Board Directors
- Heads of Business Divisions
- Business Development Executives
- M&A and Strategic Planning Executives
- Lawyers, Corporate Financiers and Consultants
Methodology
This highly practical and accessible 3-day course will reveal the secrets of successful negotiation in financial markets.
- Using research from the fields of social psychology and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
- Lectures, case studies and practical exercises will enhance your skills in order to make an immediate impact on your business dealings
Day 1
Walking the talk: how great negotiators behave
Appreciating what it takes, in terms of personal qualities, to be an effective negoti
- Core principles of negotiation
- The ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ aspects of doing a deal
Strategies for uncovering needs
Effective Negotiation is based on understanding the other side’s strengths, weaknesses and needs. This understanding is partly about conducting thorough research, before the negotiation takes place, and partly about effective questioning skills, in the actual negotiation meeting. The bottom line is that great negotiators ask great questions.
- Formulating questions
- Uncovering needs
- Testing understanding
Day 1 (cont)
Negotiation Role-Play: Case Study 1
Delegates practise their questioning techniques in an introductory role-play
Controlling the conversation
Effective negotiators don’t try to dominate the other person; they want to work with them to reach an agreement. They do, however, want to make sure that the conversation happens in a controlled, logical way, and that the other side is not able to bully them or use unfair pressure tactics. To this end they use strategies for managing the flow of the conversation.
- Setting the tone for the meeting
- Controlling the tempo
- Getting your views heard and your needs addressed
Day 1 (cont)
Negotiation Role-Play: Case Study 2
Delegates practise their questioning techniques and their conversation control techniques in a role-play situation.
Planning a negotiation
Negotiations (like much else in life) generally go better when they are properly planned. Skilled negotiators take the time to think through the issues they are facing in any given deal and systematically assess the advantages and disadvantages of their position.
- Setting goals
- Identifying the ‘agreement zone’
- Understanding ‘alternatives’
- Highlighting the bargaining chips
Negotiation Role-Play: Case Study 3
Delegates practise their Planning Strategy and then use their questioning techniques and their conversation control techniques to get a deal.
Day 2
The Formal Meeting Management Process
Good negotiators have a structured format for running a negotiation session and this discipline of having a defined format of how the meeting should proceed is especially important where teams of negotiators are involved.
- Setting the agenda
- Controlling the rate of concessions
- Capturing the details
Working to gain agreement
The stronger the relationship between the parties, the more goodwill is present, the easier it is to get an agreement. Really effective negotiators are masters at developing rapport with the other side, even in difficult circumstances or tense situations.
- Make a good first impression
- Body language and rapport
- The ‘agreement frame’
Day 2 (cont)
Negotiation Role-Play: Case Study 4
Delegates practise their Planning Strategy and then use their questioning techniques and their conversation control techniques, and rapport building tools, plus Formal Meeting Management process to get a deal.
Handling conflict
Many times in a negotiation the situation can become tense and tempers can become frayed. When things get heated skilled negotiators know how to calm things down and lower the temperature.
- The importance of taking a break
- Making yourself heard when the other person is angry
- Repositioning the argument
Negotiation Role-Play: Case Study 5
Delegates practise their Planning Strategy and then use their questioning techniques, their conversation control techniques, rapport building tools and conflict resolution techniques, plus the Formal Meeting Management process to get a deal.
Day 3
Common negotiation errors
Understanding some of the more common mistakes and errors that can de-rail an agreement and prevent perfectly good deals from getting concluded.
- The psychology of negotiating mistakes
- Real life examples of ‘failed deals’
Breaking deadlocks
What to do if meeting pace becomes slow or grinds to a halt over a particular issue or concern.
- Two ways to gain more time for thought and reflection
- Three ways to change their mind
- Two ways to alter the nature of the negotiation
Pairs exercise: discussing how to apply the tools to ‘real life’ investment banking issues
Day 3 (cont)
Handling ‘tricks’ and ‘gambits’
Understanding some of the more common ‘dirty tricks’ that are used by unscrupulous negotiators. Assessing how the persuasion strategies can be used to defend against manipulation.
- The psychology of tricks and ploys
- Common gambits explained
- Counter measures
Group exercise: sharing scenarios and discussing solutions
Day 3 (cont)
Negotiation Role-Play: Case Study 6
Delegates have a final opportunity to practise their Planning Strategy and then use their questioning techniques, their conversation control techniques, rapport building tools and conflict resolution techniques, plus the Formal Meeting Management process to get a deal.
Self assessment and Development planning
Delegates, together with their colleagues, take the opportunity to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses when negotiating and develop a personal ‘action plan’ based upon further improving their skills.
Customisation
All our programmes are run on an in-house basis and we conduct interviews and facilitate focus groups to gather information with which to write bespoke exercises and case studies that precisely reflect the culture and work environment of the participants.
Feedback
The basis of the feedback is peer review based upon assessment using a Boulden assessment checklist. Completing the assessment checklists 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.
