Negotiation guides
Negotiation
Tactics and turning points for live supplier conversations. Each article covers one moment where practitioners typically lose ground, and what to do instead.
01The Same AI, a Different Face: How Counterpart Cues Change Our DecisionsA controlled workplace study found that people rewarded functionally identical AI assistants differently depending on their presentation. What does that mean for behavioural judgment and realistic negotiation practice?02Why We Don't Put an AI Copilot in Your NegotiationAI can help before and after a negotiation. Live prescriptive coaching is different: it can add cognitive load, encourage deference and operate on incomplete context.03When to Stop NegotiatingThe sufficiency point adds a third decision rule: when further gains are no longer worth pursuing.04Most Workplace Negotiation Is Not BargainingA 2026 experience-sampling study found negotiation processes in 54% of coworker interactions, while bargaining appeared in only 2.7% of social interactions. The more useful question is what organisations choose to train.05Active Listening in Negotiation: Listen for What Isn't SaidGood listening in negotiation is not passive politeness. New research identifies three common traps and a better approach: listen to understand, listen for movement and pay attention to what the counterpart leaves unspoken.06Anger in Negotiation: When It Creates Leverage and When It BackfiresAnger can signal resolve, reveal importance and sometimes move a negotiation. It can also trigger resistance, damage trust and produce concessions for the wrong reason. The useful question is what the other side will infer from it.07How to Break a Negotiation Deadlock, and When Not ToA negotiation impasse is not automatically a failure. The useful skill is diagnosing whether the conversation is stuck because of misunderstanding, process, face or authority, or because no acceptable agreement actually exists.08Negotiation Styles Explained: Why the Best Negotiators Change StyleCompeting, collaborating and compromising can be useful labels, but a preferred negotiation style is not a strategy. New research points to a more useful capability: adapting thinking, behavior and even the structure of the negotiation as conditions change.09Can Emotional Intelligence Make You a Worse Negotiator?Emotional intelligence helps people build trust and understand the other side, but recent research finds a stronger relationship with relational outcomes than with economic ones. In negotiation, empathy needs commercial discipline beside it.10Bluffing and Lying in Contract Negotiations: What New Research SaysNew research on professional practice and deception in contract negotiations shows that experienced practitioners do not necessarily judge every false statement in the same way. For procurement, the useful lesson is how to test important claims without trying to read dishonesty from behaviour.11Where Principled Negotiation Stops WorkingFisher and Ury's framework transformed how people think about negotiation. It also assumes conditions, mutual interest in agreement, separable people and problem, discoverable objective criteria, that adversarial procurement situations often do not have.12When Anchoring Runs WrongThe Ackermann method assumes you can walk away. In a negotiation where you cannot, the anchor you open with becomes a debt that has to be repaid to the supplier, and sometimes to your own organisation.13Why AI Negotiation Practice Has to Be Spoken, Not TypedTyping to a bot and speaking to one are not the same exercise. Voice removes the edit buffer that text quietly gives you, and that single difference is what makes spoken practice transfer to a real negotiation.14How to Use AI to Screen a Contract Before You NegotiateBefore you can negotiate a contract you have to know what is wrong with it. Here is a three-step workflow for using AI to screen a supplier contract, classify its clauses against your position, and produce the list of levers you will actually negotiate.15How to Use AI to Anticipate Objections Before a NegotiationMost deals stall on the objection, not the opening. Here is how to use AI to surface the pushback you will face, prepare responses that are actually sayable, and prepare for the follow-up that comes after them.16How to Use AI to Pressure-Test Your Negotiation StrategyA plan that has only been seen by people who want it to work is untested. Here is how to use AI as a tireless red team that attacks your negotiation strategy before the supplier does.17How to Use AI to Research the Other Side Before a NegotiationThe side that understands the other's pressures and incentives negotiates from a stronger position. Here is how to use AI to build that picture quickly, without being misled by facts it invents.18The Best AI Prompts for Negotiation PreparationThe difference between a vague request and a sharp result is the prompt. Here are the AI prompts that turn a general assistant into a genuine negotiation preparation partner, organised by task, with guidance on how to run them well.19How to Use AI for Negotiation PreparationA practical guide to using AI for the analytical work before a negotiation, the four jobs it does genuinely well, how to prompt it so it sharpens your thinking instead of flattering it, and the one part of the work it cannot touch.20When Principled Negotiation Is a Category ErrorGetting to Yes assumes both parties can separate the people from the problem and focus on shared interests. Many supplier negotiations are genuinely adversarial, with different interests, limited trust, and no repeat game expected. When the most famous framework in negotiation is the wrong one.21When Aggressive Anchoring Is the Wrong OpeningThe Ackermann method of anchoring high and conceding in deliberate steps works well in a symmetric negotiation. Under time pressure, with an execution-critical supplier, an extreme opening can damage the relationship you depend on to deliver. When the textbook anchor is a mistake.22What 'Let Me Sharpen My Pencil' Actually Tells YouWhen a supplier says they will come back with a better number, they have already told you two things; the first figure was not final, and neither will the next one be. How you wait and what you do next determines what you actually get.23Good Cop, Bad Cop in Negotiation: How to RespondOne person applies pressure while the other offers relief. Learn how the good cop, bad cop tactic works, how to spot it and how to respond without conceding.24What Makes AI Role-Play Practice Real?A research-led look at what AI role-play can improve, where unrealistic counterparts undermine practice, and why credible resistance matters more than a natural-sounding voice.25The Illusion of Competence From Consuming ContentFinishing an online negotiation course produces a confident feeling of mastery that the watching itself cannot actually deliver. Understanding why passive consumption fools us explains where courses help and where they quietly mislead.26Practise Negotiation With ChatGPTChatGPT can sharpen preparation. Spoken sparring tests whether the strategy holds when a counterpart applies pressure.27Whose Deadline Is Real?Every negotiation runs on two clocks: the one the other side declares and the one they are actually watching. Knowing which clock matters changes everything you do with the time you have.28The Nibble: How Small Requests Land After the Deal Is DoneThe nibble is a small request made after the deal feels done. Learn why it works, how to spot it and how to respond without quietly reopening the economics.29Should-Cost, and Challenging "This Is Our Best Price"A flat "this is our best price" is built to end the conversation. Should-cost thinking is how a buyer keeps it open without bluffing, by understanding what the thing actually costs to make and deliver.30What to Say When a Supplier Threatens to WalkA supplier threatens to walk. Is it a real exit or pressure tactic? Learn what signals matter and how to respond without panicking or conceding too quickly.31BATNA in Procurement: What It Means and How to Use ItYour BATNA is the best alternative you can actually execute if no deal is reached. Learn how to build it and how it should shape your concessions.32When the Other Side Goes Quiet, Every Instinct You Have Is WrongSilence is one of the most uncomfortable moments in a negotiation, and most people rush to fill it. That is exactly where they hand back the ground the silence was quietly winning for them.33First Offer in Negotiation: When to Anchor and How to Stay FlexibleShould you make the first offer? New 2026 research shows ambitious anchors can improve outcomes but also trigger backlash. The useful question is how to anchor credibly without sounding rigid.34When the Other Side Opens Aggressively, the First Thirty Seconds Set the FrameAn extreme opening offer is designed to shift your expectations before you have said anything. Understanding what is actually happening makes it far easier to respond without losing ground.35The Invisible Cost of ConcessionsWhen a business spends money, something marks it: an invoice, a budget line, a signature. A concession in a negotiation is also spending, often a great deal of it, yet almost none of that machinery fires, which is exactly why it is the easiest money a company ever gives away.
Put the technique into practice.
Read the idea, practise it in a spoken supplier conversation, and review feedback on your decisions.