Negotiation Skills Training: Preparing For And Dealing With Complicated Negotiations Using Best Practice Preparation

The key negotiation skill required to unlock the most value from complex commercial negotiation environments is to identify and understand the interests of all the players affected by or participating in the negotiation. In some cases, it is simple to understand both the positions & interests of players in the negotiation. In most cases, however, it is not only tricky to identify the interests of participants; it is also difficult to identify all the stakeholders.

How to negotiate in complex, multi-party negotiations?

1. Identify all the stakeholders in the negotiation

This may be stating the obvious but in reality, it is often difficult to identify and track all the stakeholders in a negotiation. In a business environment, we should at least try to identify the following stakeholders:

a. Financial stakeholders

These are the individuals or groups that will finance, underwrite or lend authorisation to reach an agreement based on the monetary terms suggested. It is key to identify all potential parties that may have an interest in the financial aspects of the negotiation.

b. User/consumer stakeholders

These are the individuals or groups that will implement and support the outcome of the agreement that is reached. These are the stakeholders that will live and work with the output of the negotiations on a day to day basis.

c. Technical & legal stakeholders

These are the people or groups that will sign off and approve the technical and contractual aspects of the negotiations.

d. Guides/Gurus & other Influencers

These are the parties or groups that hold significant influence over the pivotal decision makers involved in the negotiation.

2. Identify the interests of each stakeholder in the negotiation

There are basically two ways to identify an individual or group's interest in a business negotiation. The first way is to put yourself in that individual or group's shoes and to try and see things from his/her/their perspective. What supporting data would you require? What precedents would come into play? What assumptions can you make, and test? The 2nd way is to ask the individual or group a series of questions to help you (and them) to accurately identify their key interests. The most useful question to ask is "Why?" "Why is this negotiation important to you? Why are you assuming this position? Why is this option being explored?"

3. Create a frame that is appropriate for each stakeholder

Having identified the interests of each stakeholder party, you should now position the appropriate frame. Different people take decisions for different reasons. It is not useful to highlight the same points to support decision making to all stakeholders. You should focus on communicating the most useful frame to each stakeholder or potential stakeholder.

4. Create an effective management structure for the negotiation

If our counter parties think of us as rational, the odds are greatly enhanced that they will also respond to us in a rational fashion. We can only present a unified and rational 'front' if we have thought about the roles & responsibilities within our negotiation team. Split the responsibility in the team between those that will manage the Relationship aspects, and those that will manage or be involved in the Task related aspects.

Negotiation skills training teaches us to create an agenda that addresses the interests of all potential participants. A successful way to simplify complex commercial negotiations is to add structure. We need to focus on the process elements to ensure that we make progress at every level of the negotiation. You will find that complexity can be managed with the use of an appropriate supporting structure.

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