Negotiation Skills Training Courses

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 courses and private on-session training sessions, we have helped leading corporations, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies improve their ability to negotiate better outcomes 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 courses. 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 courses 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.

For more information on our negotiation skills training courses please contact us.

Negotiations Training - Seeing Their Reality When Negotiating

In Herb Cohen's excellent book "Negotiate This! By Caring, But Not T-H-A-T Much" he states, "Beyond a doubt all human beings perceive, discover, and create their realities according to the maps or paradigms they have in their minds." This is a fundamental principle- that we "create our own realities." This is why the actual facts of a situation are often not as important as what is perceived. Negotiating perception is often reality to most people.

Because of this, it is natural for a person to ascribe their own beliefs and values to the people they negotiate with. People will tend to believe their concerns and aspirations during a negotiation will be the same as the other party's. While it is natural to do this, we must guard against this inclination because this often inaccurate projection will lead to negotiation problems that may have easily been avoided, or at least minimized, by recognizing the negotiating problem and opening communications with the opposing negotiator.

So what do you do to keep from imposing your beliefs, values, concerns, and aspirations to those with whom you negotiate? Ask questions! During the negotiations, especially during the beginning negotiation stages, you want to elicit concerns, interests, preferences, and needs from the other side. You do this by asking questions. Ask them even if you think you know the answer. You might be surprised, and it is only through asking and listening to the answers that are provided that you can actually determine what the other side's "reality" is. Then you can determine if it matches yours, is completely opposite, or somewhere in the middle.

While you are finding this information out, you also have the opportunity to build a better relationship with those you are negotiating with. This relationship building will help you negotiate better results for both sides. You can help build this relationship by actually caring about their positions and needs. You communicate this to them by showing them, and this means displaying empathy and understanding. This is achieved through active listening. Look at them when they talk; smile and nod when appropriate; ask clarifying questions. Most of all, really care! After all, they have something you want and you have something they want. If you didn't, you would not be negotiating with each other. Therefore, you really should care about them and not just yourself. Care about them and realize their reality is not the same as yours and you will go much further in you negotiations.