Market Savvy: 5 Reasons You Want to Invest in a Negotiating Seminar

When we think of negotiation, we usually think of North Korea and the United States talking about nuclear war, Russia and the European Union talking about winter supplies of natural gas, and other weighty international matters. But negotiation also involves everyday activities, such as discussing an apartment’s monthly rent with the landlord or convincing a spouse to attend a certain event that s/he doesn’t really want to attend.

Negotiating seminars give people in all these situations the tools they need to be more effective. These skills are especially important in business, when it comes to things like contracts and salary levels.

Personal Career Advancement

Negotiating skills gained from negotiating seminar help start a job or career on the right path, and also help immensely during the course of said job or career.

Salary negotiation is the best example of a difference at the front end. Recent evidence suggests that the gender pay gap is persistently high because some women lack negotiating skills when discussing a starting salary at a first job, and the discrepancy between their compensation and that of better negotiators (who are usually men) follows them the remainder of their careers.

As the job or career progresses, solid negotiating skills help workers better understand the situations of their bosses, colleagues, and clients. This insight not only strengthens these relationships, but also helps these individuals produce better results.

Conflict Resolution

While conflict is inevitable in any professional relationship, successful resolution of said conflict is anything but certain. Many times, the participants only gloss over their differences or “agree to disagree,” and the conflict between them continues to simmer.

Negotiating a permanent resolution has almost nothing to do with getting one’s point across and winning over the other side. Instead, permanent resolution involves proactive communication and listening skills, and these are the skills that people learn in negotiating seminars.

Problem Solving

Problems are inevitable as well, from everyday issues at the water cooler to crippling disagreements between large business entities.

A good negotiator uses the aforementioned communication skills to solve these problems. Moreover, these individuals usually earn reputations as problem-solvers, so when the boss has an issue, the boss knows who to count on.

Better Communication

Fundamentally, communication is about sharing information. Such information-sharing is even more effective when there is an understanding, or at least an appreciation, of the other party’s point of view.

Negotiation skills increase confidence in this process, so good negotiators can take this information exchange to a higher level.

Persuasion

We all want to be right. But effective persuasion has less to do with the merits of one’s own position and more to do with good communication and effective understanding of the underlying problem. Negotiation seminars help us re-orient our thinking to be better persuaders.

Negotiation is always a dynamic process which encompasses all these motivational rewards for learning the many different skills that good business negotiation relies on. In the end, employees only benefit by developing and fine-tuning the skills they acquire at negotiation seminars, and their personal and professional growth helps not only themselves but also the organization as a whole.