Negotiation Training

Online Negotiation Training Course

Overview

This course provides you with an understanding of the fundamental principles of contract negotiations required across all aspects of contracts, from the initiation of a contract ideal, through to in-contract dispute management and finally the negotiations required in closing out a contractual relationship.

It also considers approaches to building the commercial relationship, the importance of partnership in a relationship approach and provides for different negotiation styles and strategies that can be employed to reach mutually beneficial outcomes. It will give you the confidence to manage relationships internally as well as internationally and the skills to support management of costs and risk.

The program is specifically designed for professionals who interact in a commercial context.  The program focuses on delivering contemporary best practices information which will equip the student to participate effectively in commercial negotiations and does so in a manner which the student will find interesting and immediately useful in both their personal and professional life.

Intended for

Individuals involved in or directly supporting commercial contracting and who want to improve their commercial negotiation skills.

Objectives

The course will give you a full understanding of:

• Commercial negotiations across the entire contract lifecycle how to minimise value leakage at all stages
• The processes involved in negotiating and managing commercial relationships in a professional working environment, to maximise mutual benefit and minimise loss
• The customer’s and supplier’s perspective of commercial processes and how each drives the other’s behaviours during negotiations
• How to negotiate effectively across all stages of the commercial relationship
• Relationship management and its importance in achieving successful outcomes for both parties, whilst reducing disputes and claims.
• Stakeholder management skills for effective commercial benefit

Program Outline

Day 1

Session 1

Introduction to Commercial Management

• Overview: what is a commercial management?
• Tools supporting effective commercial management and maximising value
• How we use contracts to correctly document commercial relationships
• The top 10 mistakes in commercial management and how to overcome them
•  Overview of the complete contract management lifecycle

Session 2

The stages of negotiation

• Pre-negotiation planning
• Formal negotiations
• Post-negotiation

Session 3

Characteristics of Expert Negotiators

• Common traits of expert negotiators.
• Preparing for Negotiations
• Strategies implemented during the procurement process that may affect negotiations.
• Understanding the objectives of both parties.
• Environmental and situational factors that may affect negotiations and how these can be used to your advantage.
• Defining ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ and selecting a suitable approach.

Session 4

Requirements development and management

• What goes wrong before we have started. Why commercial negotiiations and relationships can fail before we have even begun
• The importance of agreeing and negotiating quality requirements in commercial scenarios
• Developing and agreeing statements of work that deliver better relationships for both parties
• Choosing the approach to build the right relationship to deliver your outcomes in an amicable manner
• The role of commercial negotiations internally within your organisation

Session 5

Managing stakeholders

• The identification of stakeholders and their prioritization
• Tools and techniques for understanding and negotiating across stakeholder
• Understanding stakeholder needs
• Communicating effectively with your stakeholder community
• Developing colleagues and suppliers as stakeholders
• Negotiation approaches to help align stakeholder interests
• Thomas-Kilman conflict mode instrument

Day 2

Session 6

Negotiating scopes of work to achieve beneficial outcomes

• Building a scope of work – input, output and outcome approaches. Which is right and how to negotiate and agree this with your internal stakeholders
• Negotiating SLAs and KPIs to meet your stakeholders needs
• How the other party evaluates opportunities that come their way
• Maximise success and minimise the impact of a risk-based negotiation
• Their rationale for wanting to work with you and how to build their confidence in their ability to work with you
• Why do they sometimes refuse your proposals before your even get to a negotiation?
• Their bid preparation approach and costing decisions. How can you negotiate with them to influence their quality?

Session 7

How to read commercial contracts effectively to reduce your risk exposure

• Understanding how contract terms can be viewed and their role in driving good and bad commercial contracts
• Active terms (terms that affect cost and schedules)
• Passive terms (terms that affect risk)
• Conditions precedent, trigger points for an action or activity
• Conditions subsequent, trigger conditions to suspend an action of activity
• Ensuring all parties align the negotiated terms and conditions to the required behaviours of both parties for the commercial relationship

Session 8

Interpersonal skills for successful negotiations

• Principles and best practices of negotiation
• Understand the internal inhibitors to successful negotiated outcomes and how to control them
• Presuppositions of negotiations
• Understanding the other side in the negotiation
• Developing a negotiations strategy
• Managing emotions through negotiation stages
• What negotiators must understand before commencing a negotiation

Session 9

Negotiation styles and the process

• Communication strategies, effective question and answering techniques.
• Understand the options for negotiation approaches
• Understand advantages and disadvantages of each
• Define the most common negotiation styles and how each may be influenced and managed.
• Positional negotiation
• Principled negotiations
• Other approaches to negotiation
• Identify your natural negotiation style and recognizing that of others.
• Consciously altering your negotiation style.
• When to use an approach, the risks and opportunities of alternative approaches

Session 10

Building a power dynamic

• Understanding motivations in negotiations
• The use of experts in negotiation
• Issues of relative power and the balance of power
• Opening the negotiation
• Responding to an opening offer
• Tactics, strategies and ethics

Day 3

Session 11

Tactics, Counter-tactics and Breaking Deadlocks

• Various tactics, tricks and ploys
• Counter-tactics to re-align the balance of power in negotiations.
• Selecting appropriate tactics to suit your unique circumstances.
• Common causes for deadlocks and techniques to avoid them, and the process to work through them to reach agreement

Session 12

Tips and tricks for closing out, and overcoming obstacles in, a negotiation

• The “Last gap” and approaches to close a negotiation
• Best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA)
• The consequences of loss
• Goals, fall backs and walk away positions
• Nibbling and add on offers
• Behavioral analysis and proving worth
• Strategies and ethics
• Tossing a coin – is it ever done?

Session 13

The role of negotiations during contract performance

• Contract targets and other measurements
• Regular management of the contract
• The role of evidence to enhance your power
• Initiating and documenting change
• Contract claims, disputes and their cause
• Resolving common operational disputes
• Avoiding a dispute and the formal dispute resolution process

Session 14

Managing the supply base and driving the right relationships for mutual success

• Measuring and managing different supplier segments
• Attributes of a strategic supplier partnership
• The value of enhanced supplier relationship management
• How to coordinate and collaborate with your suppliers
• Top tips for developing closer relationships with suppliers

Online Negotiation Training Course

Virtual Negotiation Training Course

Negotiation Online Training Course

Negotiation Virtual Training Course