Why Negotiation Training is Essential for Everyone

We tend to associate the word “negotiation” with sales executives finessing a deal, or lawyers mediating the terms of a contract. But, negotiation skills don’t only apply to these roles. In fact, we all need to have a strong skillset to negotiate, no matter the context. We all negotiate every day in different ways, in different contexts.

It is important to know how to do it right. Training employees or teaching students to effectively negotiate can have a direct positive impact in their current or future job roles. For example, good negotiation skills can significantly improve how individuals work in a team and boost client relationships.

Salespeople and procurement professionals can benefit the most from negotiation training, but anyone in a role that involves working with people to complete a task needs to have a good grasp on how to negotiate. This could mean account managers, marketers, or anyone in the professional service sector.

What specific skills are needed to be a good negotiator?

Having the right mental agility to understand different customers, assessing the scope of a negotiation, being able to manage stress and achieve resilience, having empathy: these are all examples of specific skills that are needed to negotiate effectively.

How to train good negotiators

It’s important to employ an approach that includes learning the theory (the dos and don’ts), practicing the theory learned, reflection, and what to do next time. One thing that is key is the practice element, which can be done via role-plays or simulations to help learners experience negotiation firsthand. A sales training simulation can bring a real-world negotiation example to life and lets a user practice decisions and react accordingly in a matter of hours.

Using a sales simulation to teach negotiation skills: A professor shares her experience

Dominique Rouziès, Professor at HEC Paris, teaches sales and marketing in various student and executive programs. Here, she explains how she uses the REVMANEX sales & negotiation learning simulation to help embed negotiation concepts for executives.

Who do you think this sales simulation is meant for?

“REVMANEX is a fun and challenging pedagogical tool that helps people develop negotiation skills. I can use it in all my programs since it offers "universal value" and because all executives want to negotiate better. Great negotiators need to be agile and resilient. They also need to be able to anticipate the actions of others. This simulation is great for teaching people how to develop the negotiation skills they need to succeed." 

What are the pedagogical benefits for participants?  

"Thanks to the simulation, participants are immersed in different worlds where the rules of the game change. Participants learn to identify negotiation situational contexts. They also learn that their counterparts have unique personalities, risk preferences, and missions. In a nutshell, it’s a great tool to develop effective negotiators." 

What stood out the most to you about the simulation?

"REVMANEX creates situations that are easy to understand and at the same time, not so easy to manage. In addition, it creates exciting competition between teams of participants. This is very precious because all the participants want practical skills they can use from day one in their jobs. Fun and learning is a recipe for success in any training program." 

In what context did you run your REVMANEX program ? 

"I use REVMANEX with executives from various backgrounds. They all “jump in” and enjoy the journey. I believe they learn a lot about themselves, the way they were perceived, their resistance to stress,  etc.. To sum up, they learned and enjoyed themselves a lot." 

Want to learn more about using a simulation to train your teams or teach your students key negotiation skills?