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

If anything you have to do in life requires time and energy it is a job. When more than one person is involved it requires negotiation. From getting your kids to clean their room to million dollar deals and litigations, everything requires some sort of compromise.

The problem is most people are so naïve and never think things through. A while back a friend of mine was not given her yearly bonus the company cited her performance as subpar. I suspect in these economics times they were nitpicking and looking to cut wherever they could. One employee's bonus for $5000 may not seem a lot but in a company that employs thousands having many hundreds affected could prove a considerable savings. My friend went on and on about "don't they understand about the little people living from paycheck to paycheck and why don't they take it out of upper management's pocket." She also felt the decision was unfair and prejudiced. First she should wake up and realize she is there to do a job and no one knows whether she needs the job to survive or she is there making spending money and quite frankly no one cares. That's why people should be hired on qualifications and job reviews based on performance.

I explained to her that if she pressed the issue and disputed this she wouldn't get more than $3500 as a settlement. She told me I was wrong. She went on and on about how she was going to make a difference for the next person, and she would quit if she didn't get the whole amount. The problem is, I told her, if she left no one would remember or care or even know about what happened to her. I told her to think about negotiating the best deal but my words were useless against naïve stubbornness. She said I was wrong, and she would get her whole bonus amount. Another thing is when a person opens their mouth and says things like this and doesn't follow through they put their credibility in the toilet. I lose respect when people stand on principle and then cave like an accordion. If you aren't going to follow through then shut your mouth.

Most people think when they have been wronged they will be vindicated like some hero in a movie. In real life there are no clear-cut winners and losers - just two parties who are often both dissatisfied with the outcome. I kept on telling her to focus on a settlement compromise, but no dice. She had already envisioned herself as the heroine righting the wrong for humanity.

I have mostly worked for small independently owned companies, and truthfully, in this kind of case an employee wouldn't get squat there. In a large public company it is easier for them to pay off one employee who complains because they are still ahead with the ones who didn't complain, as in this case.

Had my friend negotiated from the beginning she might have walked away with more, but she was so adamant that she was right, and right would win out in the end.

She wanted two things: one was to have her record with the bad review - which led to the forfeited bonus - expunged, and secondly, she wanted her whole bonus. Now, this was never going to happen, so she had to decide what she wanted more - her untarnished record, or the money. The company knew the money was the focus. No matter how noble we act, it's always about the money. Anyone who says not is delusional. Again, I tried to explain this wasn't going to happen, and wasn't heard.

Now, I don't know whether the outcome would have been different if she'd taken a different approach, but guess what - the settlement was for $3500, and the record of the bad review remains on file.

I would've done things differently. I would have been relentless and prompted countless discussions to find a compromise, hoping to wear them down. Even if I didn't get any more, I probably would have had the money months earlier, along with the fact I would have felt I compromised - instead of feeling, as I am sure she did and does, cheated.

What the company accomplished was what they were going to do in the first place - give up a little money. They didn't waste a moment more on the matter. My friend spent hours imagining being vindicated, then probably since has spent countless hours seething and being annoyed because she didn't come away with anything she thought she would. She didn't even think how to take this experience and learn from it.

I look at any negotiation situation and already have in mind what I am willing to compromise on. This gives me power because I now become part of the negotiation and not a victim of a decision. Also if you already know what your bottom line is then if you have to walk away then you it "knowing" that you did all you could.

Source: Charlotte Sorrentino link

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