Negotiation Skills for Contracts and Commercial Managers Training Course (ONLINE EVENT: October 15, 2025)- Product Image

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Negotiation Skills for Contracts and Commercial Managers Training Course (ONLINE EVENT: October 15, 2025)

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Training
1 Day
Oct 15, 2025 09:30-17:15 GMT+1
IPI Academy
ID: 6063342

€122EUR$138USD£100GBP OFF until Sep 10^th 2025

This highly interactive course emphasises why it is so important to engage in the battle of the forms and achieve agreement between the contracting parties. It explains how a well-negotiated contract can add value and minimise exposure to potential risks and later disputes/litigation. It also covers how a well-negotiated contract can add value and strengthen a long-term relationship, developing collaboration to realise opportunities and make the management of projects easier, with fewer risks and less delays.

This course will give delegates the methodology to prepare for negotiation in a thorough, comprehensive and structured manner, and enable them to have clarity in what they aim to achieve from the negotiation and identify the best approach.

This course combines theory with practical application, giving delegates structure to how they approach a contract negotiation so that they are fully informed, which in turn instills confidence ready to achieve results.

This course will look at the content of the negotiation and the process of the negotiation, without the use of legal jargon.

Benefits of attending

By attending this course you will develop your skills to:

Plan the best way to prepare for a negotiation
Understand how to add value and minimise exposure to risks
Get to grips with the best techniques to achieve positive outcomes
Learn how to build and sustain relationships with key stakeholders
Use best practice techniques to undertake the negotiation
Evaluate outcomes and reach formal written agreement

Certifications:

CPD: 6 hours for your records
Certificate of completion

Course Content

Introduction

Ensuring the outcome of the negotiation is legally binding

Legal protection
- Exercise - Co-op v ILC (International Computers Limited now part of Fujitsu)
- Creating a legally binding contract - LILAC
- Legality (including Bribery Act, Competition Act, Unfair Contract Terms Act, Misrepresentation/Duress)
- Intent
- Legal capacity v Power of attorney
- Agreement (Offer & Acceptance, battle of the forms. Invitation to treat v offer. Letter of Intent. Authority to proceed)
- Consideration, legal value (FOC offerings/project reviews and amendments to scope)
What, and why, are we negotiating
- Understanding the relationship between implied term and express terms in Contract law
- Shape and form of a contract
- Implied terms (statute, Acts of Parliament)
- Express terms (negotiated terms agreed verbally, in writing or by conduct)
Understanding the starting position in statute (Implied terms) and how, and why, Express terms amend or deviate from the Implied terms. Focus of the ‘why’ being:
- Clarity - removing ‘one size fits all’ subjective, ambiguous elements of implied terms, i.e. acceptance criteria revised from ‘satisfactory quality’ to quantitative measurements, e.g. KPI’s /service levels etc
- Implications of the ‘Reasonable’ rule in English contract law
- Meaning of ‘best endeavours’ and ‘reasonable endeavours’
- Importance of using the ‘Definitions’ section in the contract
Proactive risk management - allocating ownership of contractual promises and liability if contract is breached/contractual promise broken.
- Placing risk with party best able to manage it
- Monetary compensation v practical solutions/remedies e.g. ‘solutions not problems’,
- Plan Bs/contingency plans to move the project forward. Avoid litigation
- Take advantage of stronger bargaining position to reduce own liability/risk exposure
- Transparency to enable effective Supply Chain Management (SCM)
- Relationship management: ‘win-win’ for long term gains. Realising opportunities
- Exercise - Review of sample Express term clauses

Preparing for the negotiation

Negotiation is two fold: content and process. Step 1: content
- Greenhalgh Negotiation model - Preparation, Relationship, Information gathering, Information using, Closing, Implementing the Agreement
Understanding your strategy - objectives/goals
- Establishing the drivers influencing you:
- Company policy/mission
- Relationship (with other party) or Task (achieving the best outcome for you)
- Win/Win v Win/Lose. Carter’s pie theory: increasing pie size or getting largest slice.
- Time v Quality v Price (Slack, Chambers & Johnson’s Iron Triangle)
- Attitude to risk: risk minimisation or sharing risk. Risk Management Strategies: 4T’s (Tolerate; Transfer; Terminate; Treat)
- Methodology for determining priorities: MIL, Must have; Intent to have; Like to have
- Methodology for cost v benefit analysis of amount of time and effort give to negotiation reflecting the criticality of the outcome: Kraljic matrix - leverage; strategic; non-critical; bottleneck
- Exercise - Price v Scope or Risk
- Exercise - Preparing your MIL
- Exercise - Drafting potential settlement zones. 4T’s

Determining your bargaining position

Different theories/methodologies, same logic:
- Determining the bargaining power of each of the negotiating parties.
  - Difference sources of power: Reward; Coercive; Expert; Informational; Referent; Legitimate
  - “BRA”: Best Realistic Alternative/“BATNA”: Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement
  - Porter’s 5 Force: Bargaining power of suppliers; of buyers; threat of new entrants; threat of substitutes; industry rivalry
  - Porter’s Generic Strategies for Competitive Advantage model: cost leadership; cost focus; differentiation; differentiation focus.
  - Steel & Court’s Supplier Preferencing model - Development; Core Business; Nuisance; Exploitable. Attractiveness of buyer’s organisation and value of buyer’s business to the supplier
  - SWOT analysis: Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities; Threats
  - Cox’s Power and Dependency matrix
- Exercise - Porter’s Generic Strategies

Undertaking the negotiation

Negotiation is two-fold: content and process. Step 2: process
- Greenhalgh Negotiation model - Preparation, Relationship, Information gathering, Information using, Closing, Implementing the Agreement
- Aligning your negotiation style and tactics to your bargaining position and strategy

Negotiation style

Exercise - negotiation questionnaire identifying delegates default style
Different theories, same message:
- 6 styles theory: Acceptance, Compromise, Threat, Emotion, Bargain, Logic.
- Cooperative (bargaining & logic) v Competitive (threats).
- 3 C’s: Compromise, Compete, Collaborate
- 3 types - Assertive (aggressive), Accommodator (relationship oriented), Analyst (conflict avoidant)
- Thomas-Kilmann dual concern model: Competing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Compromising or Collaborate.
- Constructive v Destructive
- Push (exerting power)/Pull (persuasion) influences during a negotiation
- Rational compromise
Consciously selecting an appropriate style to achieve objectives
Exercise - ‘Push’/‘Pull’ and ‘Constructive’/‘Destructive’ approaches

Negotiation tactics

Confidence v arrogance
Honest and trust, more than just rapport. Relationship values and drivers. Avoiding getting trapped in the ‘vicious circle of blame’
Acknowledgement of past interactions - good or bad
‘Framing’ the negotiations
Opening the negotiation/effective listening & asking questions, gaining insight
Exchange of information/being aware of your own disclosures
Getting a reply: ‘rephrasing/reframing’ the same question
Use of empathy for ‘win-win’ and/or to encourage disclosure of information
Ury & Fisher’s - ‘Getting to Yes’: separating people from the problem; focusing on interest rather than position (Not what but why, reasons behind stance); generating options; focus on objectives
Body language
Silence tactic - using it/diffusing it
Breaking deadlock and moving negotiations forward
Exercise - Effective questioning

Approach and environment to reflect objectives and maximise desired outcome

Timing
Mode/venue
Environment
Atmosphere
Attendees

Structuring negotiations and good ‘housekeeping’

Establishing power of attorney of attendees
Ensuring confidentiality
Keeping negotiation open until formal written agreement signed
Focus - use of agenda: pros and cons
Summarising and capturing the agreement accurately

Final questions

Who Should Attend

All those who need to gain the latest knowledge and skills to succeed in negotiating contracts, including:

Contracts and commercial managers and engineers
Business development managers
Project and procurement managers
All those involved in the negotiation and management of commercial business contracts

Benefits of attending

Certifications:

Course Content

Who Should Attend

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