Contract Negotiation Training Resources - giving you tactics for the future

During and when you complete your contract negotiation training programme with us you will receive a comprehensive set of notes on all the topics covered. These notes can act as vital resource to you in future ensuring you never have to face a negotiation situation unprepared.

Continued support and tactics from our contract negotiation training team

All delegates have the opportunity to bounce ideas or issues off our coaches after any group training programme. What is more we are happy to assist you in the future. If you find yourself tackling a tricky issue or faced with a particularly challenging negotiation give one of our coaches a call and we'd be happy to talk it through.

If you would like find out more about the resources we can provide as part of our contract negotiation training contact us. Alternatively, find out more about our training or sign up for our negotiation newsletter or take a look at our book reviews below.

Resources and tactics available to everyone - find out what we'd recommend

Book reviews

Background reading is a great way to bolster competence and confidence in negotiation. Below are our top picks...

If we have the item in our Reference Library and you are a past delegate, we are happy to lend you a copy. [The notation after the title indicates whether we have a book (b) or audio (a)].

Getting to Yes: The Secret to Successful Negotiation (b,a)
by Roger Fisher and William Ury

Probably regarded as the single most influential book written on negotiation. The main tenet of the book is to ensure that you focus on win win negotiation - primarily by trying to deal with people's underlying interests rather than positions. They were the people that first coined the acronym BATNA. Our only issue with the book is that it does not really deal with the conflict that is all too frequent in negotiations with big customers. Essential reading for anyone who is serious about negotiation!

Start With No (b,a)
by Jim Camp

This book has, to my mind, been published purely on the back of the success of "Getting to Yes" with the idea of being provocative. Although the book has some merit, it would be quite a long way down my reading list!

Negotiate to close (b)
by Gary Karass

Written primarily for sales people, it's easy to read, and although quite simplistic there were some great insights. Particularly useful was the section on how sellers assumptions compared with the reality of the situation.

Spin Selling(b,a,v)
by Neil Rackham

If you are serious about selling you must read this book. This is one of the best researched insights into sales behaviour, and clearly identifies what makes the best the best and how they go about closing major sales.

How to Negotiate Better Deals(b)
by Jeremy Thorn

Although this book appears to be written for people without masses of negotiation experience, I think this is a great all round book. If you are looking for something to give you a grounding in many different aspects of negotiation, this is well worth reading. I would recommend this book irrespective of how experienced you are.

How to Negotiate
by Ann Jackman

Draws on the principles from “getting to yes”. Included some interesting suggestions on power – but this was also included in other texts. It suggests an 8 stage process for negotiation – which seem to be overcomplicated for most negotiations. It also draws on the Rackham research and uses a simple conflict model which has some merit. Also states Mehrabian’s work on ways of communicating as a fact - without giving the context. It’s not a bad book – but it appears to have nothing new to add.

Negotiate anywhere – (How to succeed in international markets) ***
by Gavin Kennedy

Kennedy’s books are generally worth reading – and this is no exception. This is a very detailed book on how to negotiate in different countries and is well worth a read if you are about to start negotiating abroad. The other two books worth reading are: Negotiate anything with anyone anywhere in the world by Frank Acuff and Kiss Bow or Shake Hands. Make sure you test any assumptions you make – it’s dangerous to stereotype whole races!

Negotiation basics (Concepts Skills and Exercises) ***
by Ralph Johnson

This is a good book, well written and properly referenced. The one thing I particularly like in the book is the way that Johnson keeps asking you to reflect on situations that you have been in – and to consider positions and exercises. To get much out of the book you need to read it all the way through – you can’t really just dip in and out to review bits of interest.

Getting past No (Negotiating with difficult people) *
by William Ury

A follow up to “Getting to Yes”. Promises more than it delivers. Sold well but not a “must read” in my view.

Legal Negotiation and Settlement ****
by Gerald Willams

Although this book is primarily based around lawyers, It gives a fantastic insight of how behaving aggressively affects outcomes. Reasonably easy to read, but as it is written by an academic, it’s not for the faint hearted!

Pocket Negotiator ****
by Gavin Kennedy

This is one of the first books I ever read on negotiation and made me a Kennedy fan. It is presented in alphabetical order and is a good book to pick up and put down. The section I found particularly interesting was on force projection – a ploy for altering the other party’s expectations. (He did this from both the buyer and seller perspective)

Negotiating **
by Patrick Forsyth

Uses a 10 step negotiating model (too complicated) but he does make reference to the generation of a range of variables to avoid polarising the negotiation around one or a couple of issues.

30 minutes to negotiate a better deal *
by Brian Finch

Bearing in mind this book is supposed to be a quick “heads up”, it tries to cover too many areas (eg body language), and to my mind doesn’t really cover any of them in enough detail.

The complete negotiator ***
by Gerard Nierenberg

Widely respected as one of the definitive texts on negotiation. On page 202 he makes a great (but obvious) point: Many organisations feel that purchasing is merely an administrative function – other people have determined to buy the products and the purchaser’s role is purely perfunctory.This is true in a large number of organisations, and training for these people is usually a “quick win” for most large organisations.

The Perfect Negotiation ***
by Gavin Kennedy

If you’ve only got an hour to read about the principles of negotiation – read this!

Managing Negotiations ***
by Gavin Kennedy

Well worth reading, particularly the section on ploys.