Conduct of Negotiations

In every company, negotiations are part of everyday business: be it with potential customers, suppliers, banks or insurance companies, be it between internal departments or teams, be it between superiors and employees – without negotiations, no company.

However, negotiations can stall, take a long time or be intransparent. Moreover, negotiations often take the form of arm wrestling: pressure is exerted, people defend themselves, details are bargained for and only as much is given as is received. At best, the result consists of compromises that the parties are accept grudgingly.

However, win-win negotiations are neither confrontations nor compromises, but collaborations in which the parties have a specific mindset: They are curious about the other party, open to the unexpected, free from preconceived ideas and allow new things to emerge.

What usually prevents negotiations from reaching a win-win solution is that negotiators are inadequately prepared – namely only for the content of the negotiation. However, negotiations are intensive interpersonal interactions and, in addition to the content, preparation for the interpersonal situation is important. Social skills and psychological know-how are crucial for a successful negotiation.

To ensure that your negotiations are not a power struggle or a bargaining game, but a collaboration that creates added value for both sides and strengthens relationships in the long term, I will support you in preparing for a negotiation or train your team: you will learn a mindset in which curiosity, spontaneity and openness prevail and in which you can react quickly to the unexpected. You will learn how to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and create trust, how to understand their intentions and how to make them fruitful for the negotiation. You will learn how to create room for maneuver when there is none and how to turn your counterpart from an opponent into a partner. With my support, you can defuse hardened situations or prevent them from arising in the first place.