3 Steps To Efficient Negotiation Skills

Negotiation skills training is beneficial only for sales professionals. Do you agree with that? I hope not!

Negotiation skills are essential for each and every one of us as we need to negotiate with various people in our professional and personal lives. In fact, you’ll realise we do it even more with our parents, spouse, children, vegetable vendor, etc. Right? Ever asked your parents for a Goa trip and received ‘no’ for an answer? Hahaha! Now you get what I mean!

On a serious note, we all need to be good at negotiation. And if these skills come to you naturally, great! But if they don’t? Then that’s what negotiation skills training programs are for.

In this article, we are going to discuss the 3 steps that are essential in any negotiation situation.

Step 1: Preparation

It’s important that for a negotiation to happen successfully, one needs to be fully prepared. You must have all the required information with regards to your own position, why it’s important to you and how far you are ready to budge on it.  The opposing party’s interests and limitations are also important for you to know. Also, think about what can be done if the negotiation is not successful for some reason. Prepare multiple alternatives solutions also for the same, so that you can increase the chances of a successful negotiation.

Step 2: Development

In this step, both the parties exchange information, ideas and their point of views. Make it a point to listen carefully to what the other person is saying. Ask clarifying questions to ensure that you’re both on the same page. This the phase where disagreements take place and conflicts may erupt. Stay assertive and avoid getting aggressive or falling into a passive stance. The objective here is to come up with a solution that is beneficial to both the parties. One also needs to be very patient during this phase as it can go on for quite some time and can lead to some pretty difficult discussions coming forth. Don’t try to rush this phase. Let things emerge.

Step 3: Close

This is the decision-making phase of the process. In this phase, there are two possibilities. Either there will be an agreement, or the negotiation will not come through. One needs to ensure that all the issues are dealt with clearly between both the parties and there are no discrepancies. In a professional set up, it is recommended to document the discussion. This process can be concluded by determining and finalizing the further plan of action.

I have explained these steps very briefly. For being able to actually negotiate effectively, one needs to learn the process in detail and practice it too. A negotiation skills training program is therefore highly recommended for all those that face such situations often. It gives some great insights into your negotiation style and how you can improve the same along with giving you practice. And that’s when you can truly become a master of negotiation, even if it’s not a skill that comes naturally to you!

INTERDEPENDENCY OF TEAM BUILDING & LEADERSHIP SKILLS

We, at The Yellow Spot have delivered a large number of team building trainings and events in the past 11 years. It’s our favourite offering and we are so good at it now, that we can conduct a team building training without any preparation at all!

Surprised? I was just kidding. Well, not the part where I said it is our favourite offering and we are good at it. I was kidding when I said we can do it without any preparation. In fact, we don’t do any corporate training programme without proper planning and preparation well in advance. But yes, we thoroughly enjoy doing team building trainings. Why? Let me tell you.

We love it because team building training is one such training programme where we can touch base upon many skills at a time. Team building activities can bring out multiple learnings like;

1. Collaborating with our internal and external stakeholders
2. Communicating effectively within the team
3. Identifying team members’ skills and making use of them
4. Managing resources and time effectively
5. Planning and prioritisation of tasks
6. Being open to each other’s suggestions and feedback
7. Keeping the end goal in mind at all points of time
8. Increasing team bonding and trust
9. Building a positive culture, etc.

One of most important learning from team building training is the importance of having a leader and leadership skills.

I am sure some of you will say a leader needs to have separate leadership skills trainings where they learn leadership concepts. But trust me, team building trainings are great occasions to bring out the importance of leadership skills and what they entail. And why is that? Because a leader is nothing without his or her team. And there is no better ground to learn than with your team. After all, a leader is only a leader when he has followers! And so, learning about leadership is best done in the presence of one’s followers.

Always remember, a team will be well bonded if they have a good leader who binds them well and provides direction. Similarly, a leader can only be successful if he has a team who believes in him and draws inspiration from him. Now that’s called true interdependency!

HOW CORPORATE TRAINING HELPS IN EVOLUTION AT THE WORKPLACE?

I still remember the time when I was in my last organisation and felt the urge to do something that would help me grow to the next level. I had been doing recruitments for 2 years and knew that although I was good at it, this was not a domain I wanted to spend the rest of my life in! I had somehow always had a calling for training and decided that it was now time to fulfil it. And the first step was to find a good corporate training company to help me out on the same!

So, I called up an acquaintance who was a sales professional in a soft skills corporate training company. He then introduced me to his General Manager, with whom I had an interesting conversation on how the world of corporate training is. He then shared with me the number of a good corporate training company he had heard of, from where he suggested I attend their popular ‘Train the Trainer’ program. It would not only give me an idea of how corporate training works but would also help me acquire the skills of a good trainer. And you can guess which company it was…It was none other than my present company, The Yellow Spot!

I contacted them and attended the program. And life took a turn thereafter. There was no turning back after that. And that’s how corporate training transformed my life, and now I use it to help all those that I come in contact with.

Corporate Training companies such as The Yellow Spot; have helped many individuals, teams and even organisations evolve. We are all well aware of how we need the right attitude, knowledge and skills to move ahead in life and be successful. And its corporate training companies that have helped get these in place.

To enhance our knowledge, we can all attend technical programs pertaining to our areas of expertise. Such programs can help us develop our hard skills also. There are also a large number of corporate training companies out there that cater to the ‘softer skills’ and can help you get an edge when it comes to managing people around you and your teams. And for changing attitude, there is coaching.

We all know how difficult it is to change our behaviours and even tougher, our attitude. While corporate training can make us aware of how we behave or what our attitude is, a short duration program may be insufficient for creating a long-term change. And that’s where coaching comes in. Through a series of coaching sessions, we can identify where we want to be and what change we need to make to get there. And to assist us on this path and keep us on track, we have an experienced professional who guides us and helps us pick ourselves up when we fall!

And that’s how corporate training can help you, just as it helped me, evolve and go to the next level.