Negotiation Masterclass

Duration

3 days / 2 long days

Type

In-house (for one client organisation)

About The Negotiation Masterclass

The Masterclass: three dynamic and highly interactive days with the leaders in the field will develop your team into complete negotiators. To minimise ‘days off the job’, some clients prefer to run the Masterclass in two long days (8am-8pm).

What you will learn

Comprehensive coverage of the key skills needed to become the complete negotiator

Practical tools for planning the negotiation.
A process framework for conducting it.
Handling style, behaviour and teamwork.
And elite-level skills at using and countering the tactics, gambits, auctions and tenders that are used in today’s high stakes negotiations.

How you will learn

A highly interactive workshop for 8-12 key negotiators from the same company. You will participate in realistic negotiation exercises. Video playback and analysis brings out key learning points and gives you individual feedback.

Our tutors are direct, robust and humorous. There is no ‘torture by PowerPoint’.

Skills Developed

Learning Methods

Post-course implementation

Skills Developed

The most powerful and practical negotiation skills programme.

We equip your key negotiators with tools and techniques that combine a co-operative approach, to create more value in the deal, with a competitive approach that manages power intelligently to claim as much value as possible for your side of the table.

For detailed course content, please download the Executive Briefing

Our goal is to help participants to become more effective both as solo negotiators and as team members. By the end of the programme all participants should have:

A clear grasp of their personal negotiating Style and Behaviour and how to manage these more effectively.
An awareness of the need for both Cooperative Win-Win and Competitive Win-Lose strategies, and the ability to strike a realistic balance between them.
An understanding of the three fundamental Modes of negotiation – Creativity, Reason and Power – and when to use each of them.
A set of flexible Planning Tools for determining a limit, target and opening position; deciding what information should be kept vs. shared; planning with multiple issues, etc.
Practical mechanisms for Creating and exploring Options for Mutual Gain to build a better deal for both parties.
Effective techniques for using Reason to reach agreement by putting arguments more persuasively.
The ability to use and resist Power Tactics at the pivotal moments of the negotiation by
- crafting and reacting to Opening Positions
- managing the flow of Concessions
- deploying Closes that seal the deal.
Proficiency with all the major Gambits: knowing when and how to use them, how to counter them, and even how to counter the counters.
A clearer focus on effective Teamwork in the planning and conduct of negotiations.
Enhanced Social Skills in communicating, questioning, listening, managing conflict and reading the hidden meanings of speech and body language.
Greater Control over the negotiation process – whether face to face or on the phone – to manage a smooth transition through the Three Phases to a successful Closing of the deal.
A clear understanding of when to run a hybrid Negoti-auction or Negoti-Tender; and how to run and respond to a negoti-auction/tender in both the bidding and negotiation stages. How to avoid bidding against yourself, and how to get your best bidder to improve… without lying to them.
Structured techniques for Reviewing both individual and team performance to build on success and learn from setbacks.

Learning Methods

Our courses are structured around realistic simulations which are videoed for feedback.

Interactive methods and mini-practices give you the confidence to implement the skills in your own job.

A flexible schedule enables focus on the topics that have most impact on your business.

A fun, flexible philosophy

Small groups of eight to twelve allow participants to practise new skills in a safe environment and to receive individual feedback on their style and behaviour.

The style of our course tutors is fast, direct and fun.

Flexibility is part of the package. There is no rigid daily timetable. Key concepts and skills are detailed in The Complete Negotiator, the course manual. But the syllabus is covered in a way that reflects participants’ needs and experience and picks up on the learning points that arise out of each simulation or discussion.

Negotiation exercises

Simulated negotiations are the main learning vehicle, together with discussions, group tasks and other interactive procedures. Video playback of the negotiation exercises is used

to introduce key concepts and techniques
and to give feedback to individuals on their performance.

We have an extensive suite of negotiation exercises. Examples include:

a one-on-one fee negotiation between a service provider and a potential new client, with time pressure, a competing incumbent supplier and the possibility of significant future business
a ‘negoti-tender’ where a short-listed bidder for a major international supply contract has been invited to the table, is under price pressure, but has the opportunity to improve the ‘shape’ of the deal in several ways. The bidder faces the classic danger in a negoti-auction: negotiating against yourself! Conducted in teams.

We select from our ‘library’ the exercises that are most relevant to a client’s needs.

Implementation

Implementation is a major theme. Participants prepare action plans for building on their strengths and tackling weaknesses; and they identify specific steps to be taken in their relationships with key negotiating partners / upcoming deals.

To help them put their learning into action, participants also receive a portable, ring-bound set of laminated reminder cards, The Pocket Negotiator.

Follow-up and reinforcement are available in the form of a one day ‘Booster’ course and/or one-on-one implementation coaching sessions.

Results are measured using our Implementation Checkout questionnaire, which typically demonstrates impressively large financial savings and gains as well as improvements in confidence and professionalism.

Post-course implementation

Participants leave the Masterclass fully equipped and able to implement their new skills in their day jobs. They achieve career-changing results. Why?

It is deeply practical content, taught through practice to ‘install’ the tools in participants’ minds
Time is spent on the Masterclass applying the tools (for example planning tools) to each participant’s real deals
The Complete Negotiator and The Pocket Negotiator act as helpful reference materials after the course.

The greatest impact comes when a client company takes responsibility for implementation, rather than relying on the participants or HBNC. Implementation is highest when:

Senior clients attend the first course, so that later participants know that their bosses support and expect that negotiations will be conducted in this way.
Internal approvals for negotiation plans require the use of something closely resembling the HBNC planning toolkit. We are happy to assist clients in building planning templates, ‘deal manuals’, etc.
Review, feedback and reward of negotiation outcomes are based largely on our rubric.

Nevertheless, HBNC offers and recommends two optional extras to maximise implementation and payback: Implementation One-On-One Sessions, and the Booster Day.

Implementation One-On-One Sessions

This optional package entitles course participants to phone/Zoom/Teams an HBNC tutor.

We recommend that it is used prior to a participant’s first negotiation after the course, to help them put the tools into practice for the first time and start the habit of implementation.

Clients also get the direct benefit of our expert input into that specific negotiation.

Participants might use the session for one or more of the following examples:

Hone their plan for the negotiation
Play through tactics they will use, or fear will be used against them: the tutor can act as the other side.
Get help with a tricky situation that has arisen during the negotiation
Get a quick reminder of some key things to do and watch out for at the table

Clients can choose either of two pricing models, a bundle or ‘pay per hour’. Download the Briefing pdf below for details.

Booster Day for the group, 6-12 months after the course.

The aims of the Booster are

to remind participants of the main learning points from the Masterclass
to give them further opportunities to practise key skills and techniques
to review any problems they found in implementing the messages of the programme in their real-world negotiations.

Most clients prefer to allocate some time to analysing one or more real-world situations that are imminent or recent.

See the Booster Day page, or the HBNC Briefing pdf below, for more detail