Overview
Negotiation Fundamentals is a one-day, practical workshop that turns negotiation from a high-stakes ordeal into a learnable craft. Participants prepare, practise and pressure-test the moves used by the world’s most effective negotiators — preparing thoroughly, separating interests from positions, listening to understand, influencing ethically, handling hard tactics, and closing cleanly. They leave with a toolkit they can use in their very next conversation. The course draws on the established body of negotiation research and practice from leaders in the field.
Course Content
- Mindset and self-management — what negotiation really is, your default style under pressure, and the neuroscience of staying calm when it matters most.
- Disciplined preparation — the Preparation Canvas, BATNA, reservation value and ZOPA, plus investigative negotiation.
- Interests over positions — surfacing what people actually need and expanding the pie before dividing it.
- Communication that moves the deal — active listening, tactical empathy, and calibrated questions.
- Ethical influence — anchoring and framing, the seven principles of influence used honestly and disciplined concessions.
- Tough tactics and closing — naming and neutralising 20+ hardball moves, breaking deadlock, and closing cleanly with the relationship intact.
Course Outcomes
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Prepare systematically using a structured canvas — interests, BATNA, reservation value, and ZOPA
- Distinguish positions from interests and uncover what the other side actually needs
- Apply active listening, tactical empathy and calibrated questions to shift a stuck conversation
- Use anchoring, framing and the principles of ethical influence — and recognise them being used in return
- Respond constructively to hardball tactics and break through deadlock without damaging the relationship
- Close agreements cleanly, in writing, and walk away with a 30-day action plan for deliberate practice
Benefits to the Individual
By attending this course, you will:
- Enter into negotiations more prepared, calm, and clear about what you want and why
- Knows your walk-away point and so you are less likely to drift into deals they later regret
- Ask insightful questions, listens more deeply, and surface what the other side actually needs
- Recognise and neutralise pressure tactics rather than reacting on instinct
- Influences ethically — firm on outcomes, reasonable with people, never dependent on bluff
- Closes agreements cleanly, in writing, with the relationship intact for next time
- Reports lower stress and higher confidence going into difficult conversations
Benefits to the Organisation
Organisations will benefit through:
- Stronger commercial outcomes — better-structured deals, healthier margins, and fewer concessions given away unprompted
- Reduced value leakage from over-discounting, scope creep, and avoidable rework
- Faster, cleaner contract closures — less back-and-forth, fewer deals stalled in deadlock
- More durable client and supplier relationships — agreements people actually follow through on
- A consistent, shared language for negotiation across teams — sales, procurement, project, and people leaders working from the same playbook
- Improved internal collaboration — fewer escalations, better trade-offs, faster decisions on shared resources
