It's a deal (Archive)
Win-win negotiation deals.
 
You need complete confidence, good planning and thorough preparation to negotiate well. Fortunately, these are skills you can acquire and improve.

Based on research into effective negotiation techniques, this drama-based programme features a typical negotiation, taking a two-phase approach: preparation and bargaining. It clearly demonstrates how effective preparation and bargaining will give you the required result, leaving both parties feeling that they have got a good deal.

The techniques will not only build your confidence so you can control and enjoy negotiations, they also allow you to be flexible and anticipate all eventualities – and enable you to avoid a stalemate.

Each phase is broken down into easily managed modules, providing a framework that you can apply to every negotiation. You can also use it to train your staff to take negotiations from the initial planning stages through to a successful win-win outcome.
 
 Trainer Tools
It's a deal self study guide
It's a deal trainer's guide
 
Negotiation is one of the more abused words in the English language. Consider the following:
• Estate Agents commonly refer to themselves as ‘negotiators’. Yet, especially in domestic sales, what do they ever do except discount the price of the property?
• During a recent hostage crisis the government was castigated by a relative of one of the hostages: ‘They’re not doing anything,’ she said. ‘I’m not saying they should make concessions, but at least they could negotiate.’
• One of the world’s largest management consulting firms bought a Selling Skills course for its consultants. To avoid offending their sensibilities it was re-titled ‘Negotiating Profitable Partnerships’.
• Paul Simon released a successful compilation of his recordings entitled ‘Negotiations and Love Songs’.
So what is negotiating? Is it discounting? Talking about a solution to a problem? A euphemism for selling? An integral part of everyone’s life, like love?
None of these is really a correct use of the word, Negotiation. Reference to the dictionary definition immediately shows why.
What it is – a definition
A short dictionary definition of Negotiation is ‘conference and bargaining for mutual agreement’. Simple though this is, it tells us a lot about Negotiation. We can deduce that for a Negotiation to take place, certain conditions must be satisfied.
Both Parties must have some Level of Commitment to do a Deal
If one side is not committed, why would it want to confer or bargain? The management consultants were not being trained to negotiate, they were being trained to sell, to create a need for their product. Negotiation only occurs after both sides have recognised a need to do business.
 
The most conclusive evidence of this is that in selling the behaviour of Buyer and Seller are totally different. In negotiation, however, the skills used on both sides of the table are exactly the same because both sides want the deal. This training programme is therefore equally relevant to Buyers and Sellers.
Both Parties must have the Authority and the Will to Vary the Terms of the Agreement
Bargaining implies trading something you have for something the other party has which is important to you. So both sides must make concessions on some issues to gain advantage on others. The suggestion that the government should ‘negotiate… but not make any concessions’, is self-contradictory. Similarly, we could ask if the Estate Agent is really negotiating. He may make a concession by discounting the price of his client’s house, but what concession does he ask for in return from the purchaser? Usually none. The Estate Agent is not negotiating – he is differentiating his product through price in the hope of making it more attractive.
Negotiation does occur very frequently throughout our lives, so maybe Paul Simon’s use of the word is the most accurate. But it would be wrong to reduce negotiation to the level of an emotion or a reflex action.  
Negotiation is not selling or discounting; it is the process by which two parties who want to make a deal reach agreement on what the precise terms and conditions of the deal should be.
Negotiation is a complex art. It involves elements of philosophy, long-term strategic planning, arithmetic agility, commercial creativity and high levels of interactive skill.
So whether you’re discussing the washing-up with your spouse or a multi-million contra trade with the third world, you’re negotiating as long as our two key conditions exist.
This video will help you improve your negotiating performance: help you get more deals on the terms you desire. Interestingly, you may also find that the parties you negotiate with are happy with the agreements you’ve reached – but they’ll probably never know why!