You need a 21st century approach to negotiation that builds business relationships and increases value. Win-win is out of date and unrealistic, so how do we progress to a zone of agreement where outcomes are achieved that both parties are ok-ok with? Complete negotiations with value for both sides and a strong relationship for the next conversation and project together. Call Mat on +44 7572 343 341 for a simple and powerful 5 step model and stage by stage negotiation planner that can boost your professional competence and personal confidence as a negotiator and relationship manager. http://mercuri.co.uk/how-can-mercuri-international-help

1. Taking Sales to a Higher Level
Relationship-
Based
Negotiating
21st Century approaches to
negotiating to build business
relationships and increase value
While most negotiation workshops focus only on the
final bargaining stages and what goes on in the
negotiating room, our approach recognises that
success is often down to reading the relationship,
holding pre-deal discussions and preparing efficiently
and effectively.
The Challenge
We see several issues when it comes to negotiating in
the many sectors that we support:
Negotiations often swing between aggression and
surrender.
The stakes are getting higher. A number of
customers have recognised that significant business
value is being “left on the table”.
Most people learn to negotiate informally. Few have
had formal development.
Negotiations need to reflect relationship strategies
and take into account the bigger picture rather than
being purely transactional.
For more information please contact us on +44 (0) 330 9000 800 or email us at clientservices@mercuri.co.uk
www.mercuri.co.uk
The Mercuri Solution
We have developed a very effective blended solution
that includes a workshop, coaching, a detailed
playbook and video resources.
While most negotiation workshops focus on the final
bargaining stages and what goes on in the
negotiating room, our approach recognises that
success if often down to reading the relationship,
holding pre-deal discussions and preparing efficiently
and effectively.
The keys to the successes we have achieved with
our customers are:
Good diagnosis of the real gaps between what’s
happening today and the desired situation. This
includes co-building the business case.
Making the workshop, and in particular the case
studies, very specific to the business.
Engaging with leaders early on to ensure their
commitment during delivery and deployment.
“My preparation is much more geared to
negotiation. I listen more in meetings, giving time
for the customer to express themselves. I look for
positive outcomes rather than just brick-walling with
barriers.”

2. Relationship-Based Negotiating
Effective diagnosis requires a clear understanding of
the areas for improvement. Our diagnostic approaches
include:
Mercuri’s Online Competence Evaluator™ tool to
assess the current negotiating capability of your
people and compares them to ‘best in class’. Our
library of negotiating capabilities make this a very
fast and effective tool.
SCAN self-assessment surveys to measure ‘before
and after’ ability and confidence to measure the
effectiveness and impact of development.
Interviews with first-line and senior sales leaders.
This has proved vital in identifying the real
negotiating issues in the business, agreeing
priorities, ensuring engagement and designing case
studies.
Diagnosis
Design
The structure of Relationship-based Negotiating is:
Establish goals: Be clear about the current
relationship and where you are looking to take it.
Avoids “winning the battle and losing the war”.
Create context: A powerful toolkit to assess the
situation using 21 century negotiating concepts.
Then make sure that effective and open pre-
negotiation discussions take place.
Form the offer: Work on variables to identify “cost to
us value to them”. Agree on entry and exit points.
Prepare for the negotiation.
Bargain and tactics: Learn to identify and counter
the most frequently encountered tactics. Use tactics
in the right way. Bargain in a way that increases
values and minimises concessions.
Move forward: Handle the end game and the vital
post-negotiation phase.
Because we are working from a proven programme
design, the design phase for Relationship-based
Negotiating is usually limited to:
Confirm what’s in and what’s out.
Adapt terminology and tools to the business.
Gather very specific best practice particularly in the
use of variables.
Create business-specific case studies. This has
proved a vital part of the process and should not be
under-resourced.
Delivery
Usually delivered as a 2 day face to face workshop
(1 and 3 day options are available).
Group size 8-16 with 2 trainers. Can be delivered to
groups of 24 with addition of 2 observer /coaches
(often drawn from the business).
Major focus on live practice sessions using
business-specific case studies.
Ensure application by frequent action planning
sessions.
“I better understand the power in
negotiations and appreciate the
customer objectives better than
previously. Additionally I approach
negotiations with several options
where possible as opposed to one.”
For more information please contact us on +44 (0) 330 9000 800 or email us at clientservices@mercuri.co.uk
www.mercuri.co.uk

3. For more information please contact us on +44 (0) 330 9000 800 or email us at clientservices@mercuri.co.uk
www.mercuri.co.uk
Relationship-Based Negotiating
Implementation is key to success and Return on
Investment and it needs to be considered and designed
in from the beginning. Our approaches include:
Negotiation playbook and toolkit: Rich resources
include checklists, templates, white papers, videoshorts,
aide-memoire, coaching tools.
Coaching: Coaching can be done by the Mercuri team
but it is better if coaching is done by managers within
the business. They can be supported by virtual or face
to face coach-the coach sessions.
Deployment
Durability
Negotiation training will only deliver sustained Return on
Investment if there is a sustained change in behaviour;
if the processes become an embedded part of
“Business As Usual” there will be measurable change in
result.
In practice, this means that senior management needs
to lead the change and monitor the changes. Often the
KPIs will need to realign with the changed behaviours.
Some processes and management practices may need
to change.
For example, one market leader built in a rule that any
negotiation above a certain value needed to use the
preparation template we developed and needed the
involvement of the unit head in a pre-defined
preparation process.
Mercuri International is aware of the risk of creating long
–term dependency so the business needs to take
ownership of the changes.
However, we do not walk away from projects once the
delivery stage is complete and will want to work with
you through deployment into durability.
What does a durable relationship-based negotiating
programme result in?
Here are a few examples:
99% of all participants would recommend to a
colleague.
95% described content as highly relevant or relevant.
The 18% who said before the training they were not
confident negotiating dropped to only 3%, three
months after the training.
Before the training, over 70% said they found it
difficult to read the other side’s negotiation ploys and
tactics. This dropped to under 30%.
Over 100 examples of positive changes in behaviour
after 3 months.
Over 50 examples of RoI after 3 months e.g.
• >£1m reduced exposure from one
customer.
• >2% margin improvement for another.
• Increased income by £132k with another.
“I am really delighted with the
response to this programme.
Without doubt, it is the most
appropriate and effective
programme we have delivered”