Negotiation Skills Training Classes

With over twenty-five years of proven industry experience, the Negotiations Training Institute of America is the recognized leader in negotiations training, consulting and performance coaching. Through public open enrollment classes and private on-session training sessions, we have helped leading corporations, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies improve their ability to negotiate betteroutcomes for their constituencies. First-time negotiators as well as those with the greatest competitive drive and amount of first-hand experience and negotiations wisdom can benefit from our time-tested classes. Whether focusing on negotiating a contract with a vendor or jumping in to the often-stressful car buying process to deal with a dealership, our classes provide useful skills, proven techniques and various classroom role plays to help you become more aware of negotiations that you must face on a daily basis.

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Negotiation Training Classes - Lessons in Negotiations

During negotiations many things become intuitive as the process continues and as you get to understand the other people involved in the process. Nevertheless, you have to keep in mind that while there may be some similarities in the process, each negotiation is unique in certain regards. It could be the other party's needs, it could relate more to the mix of people involved or it could be the personal characteristics of certain individuals involved in the negotiation. Always remember that negotiations are not a science and that you have to be as creative as possible to come up with the best outcome. To put it simplistically, different people desire different things which ultimately will result in different outcomes

In terms of creativity, there is no limit to how deep you may have to reach into your experience base to break a stalemate, to actually get the other party to hear what you are trying to communicate or to get someone to move on to another point to make some progress. Although nothing is identical from one "deal" to another "deal," there usually are some similarities.

Here are some of the things I have learned and have used over the years.

To break a "stalemate" and to relieve tension in the room, take a break and use a joke to break the tension. Ideally, the joke will help you make your point in a different way so that you can move on in the negotiation. In any event, be careful when using this approach that you do not misread the situation or tell a story that offends someone.

Recognize the body language of others at the negotiations table and other people in the room. They are like "tells" at the card table. You need to focus on what other people may be telling you through body signals. There have been volumes written on this subject, but I would like to point out a couple that I have encountered many times:

1. Someone leaning back away from the table probably is telling you that they do not buy into what you are telling them.
2. Nervousness often is displayed through constant swinging of the leg.
3. Rapid blinking of the eyes can signal that the person is uncomfortable, that they are lying or in some situations, it could be a sign of alertness.
4. Pay particular attention to the other person's eyes. We can pretty much control the muscles in our lower face, but not the upper portion. That is why many professional poker players wear dark glasses at the table.

Periodically, you also need to remind yourself to pay attention to what kind of messages you, and the other members of your team, may be sending to the other party through your body language. A simple thing like head shaking "yes" or "no" by your team members while you are talking tells the other party an awful lot about your position, and may even lead to questions about your integrity.

Avoid falling into the typical North American character trait of being eager to get to the bottom line quickly, or to make an issue go away, by "splitting the difference" just because you are uncomfortable with the negotiations. If you are recognized for "splitting the difference", the other party will soon learn to adjust their sights and ratchet up the outcome in their favor.

Eliminate the clock from negotiations. Do not establish arbitrary deadlines in your haste to return home or get the negotiations done. Arbitrary deadlines will force you to accept terms that otherwise might have been improved given sufficient time. Remember once agreed, you probably will have to live with the terms for a long time, if not forever.

Finally, when dealing with other cultures, do not overestimate English language comprehension based on speaking skills. I am not demeaning other cultures as their understanding of English typically far exceeds our ability to speak their language, but there are subtleties and nuances in English that go far beyond the words themselves.

Lessons learned: Stay alert, stay creative and take your time.

Source: C. Newman Link

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