Negotiation Skills Training Seminars

Our public Negotiation Seminars and in house Negotiations Seminars are enlightening, educational, measurable and fun. Negotiation training seminars can be scheduled at your offices or through our open enrollment seminars. We do offer negotiation skills training seminars to the general public.

Contact us today to discuss your specific Negotiation training needs or to sign up for one of our public negotiation seminars. 

Participants in the Win- Win Negotiations seminar will learn to:

• Develop an effective plan and strategy for any negotiation
  
• Know when and when not to negotiate
  
• Negotiate face-to-face, on the phone, and through e-mail
  
• Learn to become a more persuasive negotiator
  
• Develop a common negotiating language with the other parties
  
• Use negotiation techniques that pull information from the other parties
  
• Read client and employee behaviors styles to maximize closure
  
• Recognize interests and issues and avoid unnecessary positions
  
• Neutralize manipulative negotiation tactics
  
• Minimize negotiation conflicts and deadlocks both internally and externally
  
• Coordinate negotiations within client organization
  
• Meet business objectives by focusing on planning rather than on tactics

I wanted to get better at negotiation skills, but where to start? UK Amazon currently has 2332 books on negotiation skills. Google indexed nearly 4 million relevant (yeah, right) pages. All I need is a simple, straightforward negotiation skills model that I can put to use now.

Fazed by the glut of negotiation skills information, I went within, and remembered the wise teachings of a senior manager in my early working life. So, come closer, listen up, because he was very wise indeed…

He said, “Do you know your LIMits?”

“My what?" said I, cautiously, wondering if he was asking about my drinking capacity, driving speed or something equally off the wall.

Being worldlier than I, he noticed my confusion and helped me out.

“Lyndsay, if you want to be successful in life, you need to know your LIMits. Let me explain. What would you Like to have? What do you Intend to have? What Must you have? What are your LIMit’s?”

Slowly it dawned on me that he was talking the strange management language of acronym mnemonics.

He wrote down the word for me like this.

L
I
M
I
T
S

And next to the letters he wrote:

L – Like to have: your number one, top of the pile, best outcome.

I – Intend to have: your realistic, shoot for the stars but reach the moon outcome.

M – Must have: your bottom line. Deal is off if this is not met.

(The I,T and S are irrelevant; just convenient additions to prevent asking what your LIM are!)

Testing the Negotiation Skills Theory

And so ended his negotiation skills esson. Off I scampered like the eager young graduate I was, itching to put this into practice. Thinking about a possible secondment opportunity, I wrote the following:

Like – 10% bonus, new laptop, mentoring with new senior manager
Intend – 5% bonus, attendance at special course, return to new job after secondment
Must – same pay, relocation expenses paid, credit in my appraisal

The final deal I struck landed somewhere between Like and Intend, with a few perks I had not even considered, so I felt my negotiation skills were a success.

Why This Negotiation Skills Model Works

There are a couple of reasons why simple negotiation skills models like this are useful but often forgotten.

The LIMits negotiation skills model encourages flexible thinking, in that there are three potential good outcomes. Compare this with the most common alternative - success or failure – and you can see there is only allowance made for one good outcome. You don’t have to be a gambling pro to work out which negotiation skills approach is best! The secret of the LIMits negotiation skills model is if you don’t meet all the criteria for success, then the result is not necessarily failure, just a different outcome.

The other benefit of using the LIMits negotiation skills model is it forces you to prepare, gaining you vital spare capacity when you are in the thick of the negotiation. You will be clear about your position and better able to get that across.

Information Overload

As I demonstrated, simple negotiation skills models are forgotten because we seek out newer, shinier ideas in books, the internet or from other sources. Reduce information overload by re-using what you already know or recycling an old negotiation skills idea into one that works today. Old knowledge is not always redundant.

So, use your negotiation skills to land that new job, better deal or contract. All you need is to know your LIMits.

Lyndsay Swinton: http://www.mftrou.com

Notes: Negotiation Skills

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