It all begins when one realizes that what he wants to achieve through a negotiated agreement does not succeed, it is more difficult than it seems.
Doubt takes over the person and asks himself, why? What happened? The answers are endless and in the end we realize that the problem is that we do not have enough knowledge about what it is really to negotiate.
In the training market you can find the most varied offer of negotiation courses, the consultancies do not stop offering negotiation skills courses to the Human Resources departments and very few are really attractive. Most offer face-to-face training that is limited to transmitting knowledge that many of them can be acquired by buying a good book. So let's find the difference.
You have to start by knowing what is needed, negotiating is a skill that is acquired through practice, but in order to practice it, you have to have clear ideas. To the extent that it is clear when it is transferred and when it is granted, it is already becoming clear when it is negotiation and when it is not. In all the courses, the experts always say that day-to-day are continuous negotiations, but…, we yield or we grant, the art of negotiating lies in granting, if you learn this you are learning the negotiating skill.
Everyone who attends a course wants to know his qualities as a negotiator, not in a general way, but in a personal way, many ask the experts, and I… what? What are my qualities, in what do I have to improve? There are stereotypes, but the student should not be satisfied with knowing the ideal; he must demand that he receive a feedback of his own strengths and areas for improvement so that, by means of guidelines to follow, correct himself and gradually approach that profile of good deal maker.
Once the profile of each attendee is already known, they should be proposed how to improve while taking advantage of their virtues. This is known when you must start with the knowledge and analysis of the negotiations.
Clear objectives must be set, this will help to know if the negotiation to be carried out is competitive or cooperative. If it is competitive, it has a different treatment than if it is cooperative. The competitive one looks for the own benefit more at the cost of the other part, the cooperative looks more for the satisfaction of mutual needs.
Depending on the negotiations carried out by the course attendees, it will be necessary to go deeper into one or the other, or both equally. This is a differentiating aspect of the courses that we can find in the market, most do not personalize the type of negotiation to deal with according to the profile and interests of the group.
Both competitive and cooperative negotiations need proper preparation, each has its own way of preparing to avoid improvisation and to be able to function properly in the negotiating process.
With the support of the preparation tools, the objectives are known by variables to be negotiated, where the lower limit is known so that, once it is exceeded, the negotiation is not continued. And, relying on the realization of a correct CAR (Table of Resource Alternatives), grant variables knowing the value of said variables for both parties (fringes; variables of little value for both parties, treasures; variables of higher value for the opposite party, secrets; variables of higher value for me or variables to dose; they have a lot of value for both parties).
The art of negotiating lies in granting variables for ones of the same or greater value. Depending on whether the variables can be quantified or not, one tool or another will be used.
In the measure of the time that is available to collect information, both from one part and the other, and analyzed, a better preparation can be made. To prepare a negotiation correctly you have to have time and information.
But not only do you have to know how to prepare the objectives and the variables to be negotiated, you also have to prepare the communication process that is carried out in all negotiations. A negotiation in which there is practically no dialogue is not negotiation. Negotiations are characterized by the development of a communication in which the parties present, argue, grant, listen, empathize, ask, observe, take notes, pause, apply tactics and counter-tactics, handle verbal and non-verbal language… to try reach an agreement that satisfies, as far as possible, the interests of both parties.
This is what you should really learn in the negotiation courses. The assistant must learn to expose, argue, grant, listen, empathize, ask, observe, take notes, pause, apply tactics and counter tactics, correctly use verbal and non-verbal language…, and this is difficult to find in the market for the formation.
If you learn how to communicate in a negotiation you have a high percentage of probability of reaching an agreement, if we add to this the knowledge of the negotiating tactics to apply them and detect them acting accordingly according to your own interests, relying on a correct preparation By bringing out the best negotiating qualities and focusing on the fundamental requirements for negotiation (defending our interests and cooperating with the other party), the probability of reaching a win / win agreement increases considerably.
It is necessary to understand that the negotiations go through some phases that must be fulfilled, you should not be in a hurry, each phase has an objective, once achieved, you must finish this meeting, analyze the new information and prepare the next one. So meeting to meeting, until the end of the negotiation is reached, the agreement is reached.
In each phase of the negotiation, certain behaviors and ways of proceeding must be taken into account, as well as the application of negotiating tactics that help achieve the objectives of each phase.
If this is supported by the corresponding audiovisual means and the assistant is negotiating in a personalized role-playing game, in order to improve his observable behaviors, adapting to the situation, the skill is learned, therefore, learning to negotiate.
