Negotiation Training & Certification

Team-based digital learning

Your team will learn:

• The fundamentals
• Laying the groundwork
• Opening techniques
• How to bargain
• Close and complete
• Game theory
• Influence with NLP
• Managing bias

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Negotiation Training & Certification

Master the essential procurement professional skills needed to succeed at the negotiating table, and ultimately in their job. Master the core strategies and principles in preparing for negotiations, setting objectives and conducting negotiations to achieve maximum benefits after the RFP.

Negotiation skills are arguably the most important skills that procurement professionals need to succeed in their job. Our suite of negotiation courses and tools equips your team with the skills, competencies, and confidence to make the most out of every negotiation.

The fundamentals

Our fundamentals course explains the principles behind “win-win-lose negotiation”, goal setting and balancing the “5 Rs”. Our questionnaire helps team members assess their own unique negotiating style as a foundation for developing it.

Laying the groundwork

Learn the essential preparation steps for a successful negotiation, identifying critical issues, setting stretch targets, determining a walk-away position, building supplier shortlists and an introduction to the concepts of ZOPA and BATNA.

Opening techniques

Develop proven tactics used to open a negotiation. Discover why a positive negotiation climate is essential as well as the listening skills needed to understand the supplier’s offer. Master the standard negotiation vocabulary used, how to take a negotiating position and learn the importance of summarizing.

How to bargain

Explore and practice how to ask the right questions, open/closed/leading/hypothetical questions, read the subtleties of body language, make strategic concessions and develop bargaining tactics such as low ball/high ball, what-if, bluff and bogey.

Close and complete

Navigate the end of the negotiation process, learn when to stop bargaining, how to spot closing signals, handling last-minute objections, finalizing the deal and communicating with internal customers. We review the top six negotiation tips to remember and negotiation pitfalls to avoid.

Game theory

Learn how to view the negotiation from the supplier’s perspective, designing the “game” to deliver the result that you want, predicting the supplier’s behavior, making your negotiation approach credible, and delivering the desired result.

Influence with NLP

In our set of two courses on “Using NLP to Influence Stakeholders”, you will learn how to influence stakeholders (or suppliers) using Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), with the first step being analyzing and improving yourself. Learn how to resolve conflict, choose how to read and influence others, including building a rapport and the four habits to improve confidence, tenacity, and productivity.

Managing bias

Biases are a part of the human condition, and excellent negotiators understand how to manage their own biases and those of others to get the best result. In our set of two courses covering biases in negotiations, you will learn how bias costs your organization money, which cognitive biases affect negotiation results, how to correct the systematic errors that we all make, how to identify and avoid bias in your own team and how to use supplier’s bias to your advantage.