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Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants

We are the premier provider of high level negotiation training courses. We also advise on major negotiations. We specialise in negotiation – and nobody does it better.

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About Us

This London-based boutique firm is the premier provider of high level negotiation skills training for:

Negotiation - Monkey on your back

Our Negotiation Masterclass is widely regarded as the most practical, powerful and comprehensive negotiation training available, delivered by exceptional tutors.

We equip your key negotiators with the tools and skills to create value and to claim it.

We also provide bespoke advice on the planning and conduct of major negotiations.

Assisting a negotiating team in planning for a negotiation

By applying our Planning Tools to the current negotiation, and providing advice on specific techniques to use at the table

Continuing to provide advice throughout an extended (multi-meeting) negotiation

“They said this, now what do we do?!”

We also attend or participate in negotiations alongside clients

A combined training and consulting project   

A Masterclass for the team about to be involved in a major negotiation, with a specific focus on planning and teamwork for that negotiation

What Clients Say About Us

We talk about ‘before Hartley-Brewer’ and ‘after Hartley-Brewer’.  A regulatory change meant that our industry had to completely restructure the way we priced our services.  Stephen’s bespoke training transformed the way we went about it.  The industry’s total revenues fell 20%, but our revenues went up – and we attribute much of that to the training.

Head of Equities, leading Investment Bank

Without doubt and by a substantial margin, the best course I have been on in my entire life. Within weeks, it had made my firm several million dollars. When I walked into my boss and told him what I had negotiated, he looked at me in disbelief. At times, it almost seems unfair to use the things you learn on the course, they are so effective.

And the skills I learnt on the course, now as natural to me as breathing, have continued to generate substantial returns; not only in my professional life but also in house price, car and many other domestic transactions. This course will pay for itself many times over even if you never use it for work.

Managing Director

Investment Banking

Phenomenal learning & self-reflection. Highly applicable skills and excited to negotiate.

JV Manager, Oil & Gas

I learned a lot about myself, what I need to work on, and what I already do right

Buyer, Retail

The best piece of training we have provided in my 28-year tenure!

Partner, Private Equity

“We saved £50m in the first 30 minutes of our negotiations, just because of that training”

Project team head

Become the complete negotiator

Let's get in Touch

We will contact you ASAP

Why All The Monkeys?

The Monkey is one of the vivid images we use in our training to make a key concept memorable. This image in particular has become a totem for our firm: a toy monkey attends every course, and the BBC made a documentary about us titled The Monkey Man.

A “monkey on your back” is a problem you have – in negotiation terms, that makes you want a deal even on bad terms. E.g. you’re under time pressure / you don’t have any other offers / you think the quality of the other offers is poor.

Monkeys lead most negotiators to underestimate their own relative power and so negotiate too ‘chicken’. And there is a structural reason for this error. – When you look at your own situation you are only too aware of your own monkeys. But the other party may not be aware of these factors.• At the same time, the other guy has problems too – and he isn’t going to tell you about the monkeys on his back as this would only weaken his position. • So you have a distorted view of the power balance. It’s distorted because you have taken account of all your monkeys, but have not allowed for the monkeys he almost certainly has on his back – because you don’t know about those. And the distortion is always in the same direction: it always leads you to underestimate your own power.

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