The Art of Negotiation: Know-How for Winning Deals and Building Relationships (Part 1)
Why Is It Becoming Crucial To Learn Negotiation Skills?
What comes to mind when the word “Negotiation” is mentioned? For many people, they usually think of two scenarios – 1. Hostage negotiations in movies where the chief negotiator is trying to make a deal with the terrorist demanding a ransom (picture the movie “Speed”) and 2. Two corporate organizations negotiating a cutthroat multi-million-dollar merger & acquisition deal.
However, those scenarios don’t seem relatable and commonplace. Negotiations go far beyond hostage negotiations and high-stakes business transactions. Strong negotiating abilities can greatly improve your capacity to persuade, engage with your audience, and accomplish desired results whether you’re selling a product/ service, leading a meeting, negotiating for a better salary or role, giving a presentation, or speaking in front of an audience. The advantages of developing negotiation skills and how they support effective public speaking and presentations will be discussed in this article.
How do negotiation skills improve persuasion and influence?
Effectively persuading and influencing others is one of the main advantages of learning negotiation techniques. How you might ask? Precisely because 1) Active Listening and 2) Understanding and Empathizing with the counterpart are skills that are part and parcel of negotiating, they facilitate and foster greater persuasion and influence.
Juxtapose that with someone who is strong-headed, stone-walls the counterparty (not hearing the opposition or not giving the other side the opportunity to voice his or her views and proposals), insensitive to the counterparty and not willing to take into consideration the interests of the other party.
A person or an employee who has competent negotiation skills will know how to detect and discover the interests and underlying positions of the other party and therefore able to formulate creative, persuasive and win-win overtures.
How do negotiation skills make communication more engaging and improve likability?
Engaging your audience is just as important to a good presentation as providing information or executing your rehearsed presentation to perfection. If one develops his or her negotiation skills, he or she can learn how to detect nonverbal communication cues (body language cues such as folding of arms that signals discomfort and raising the psychological barriers), modify your message off-the-cuff to suit the demands of your audience, and salvage meaningful encounters. This is applicable to various communication settings – from interpersonal 1-to-1 situations or during the Q&A segments of a presentation to a large crowd. Unexpected circumstances frequently occur, and not all presentations adhere to a rigid script. Being able to negotiate allows you to be adaptable and modify your message to fit various audiences, situations, or difficulties.
Individuals with competent negotiation skills can establish a lively, two-way conversation that keeps your audience interested, engaged and committed to your message by developing your ability to read and detect body language cue, asking the right questions and respond pertinently, resulting in better building of rapport with the audience.
How do negotiation skills strengthen leadership and help handle rejections or objections?
Rejections of counteroffers and objections to certain (or all) features of one’s proposal is part and parcel of negotiations. One’s ability to keep composed and still remain clear-eyed and non-emotional in face of rejections and objections, together with the active listening and constructive formulation of win-win offers, will augment one’s leadership ability in building trust within the team and persuading team members to jump onboard and accept one’s idea.
Stay tune for part 2 where we share some fundamental negotiation terminologies to get you started!
🔑 Key Takeaways: Why learn negotiation skills?
- Negotiation is a universal skill, not limited to high-stakes deals or hostage situations — it’s relevant in everyday communication, presentations, and professional settings.
- Strong negotiation skills boost persuasion and influence by emphasizing active listening, empathy, and a win-win mindset.
- Effective negotiators avoid being rigid or confrontational, instead working to understand the other party’s interests and creatively aligning outcomes.
- Developing negotiation abilities enhances communication by improving your ability to read body language, respond in real-time, and tailor messages to different audiences.
- These skills improve audience engagement, enabling presenters to adapt dynamically and foster two-way interaction.
- Negotiation strengthens leadership by building trust, managing objections calmly, and motivating others through clarity and emotional control.
- Rejections and objections are natural in negotiation, and handling them constructively demonstrates professionalism and maturity.
- Public speaking and negotiation overlap, especially in areas like adaptability, influence, and building rapport — mastering both leads to stronger communication impact.
More tips on public speaking & communication skills
Check out our tips on the following five communication topics:
Speaking Confidence Building Strategy
Effective Presentation Techniques
Impromptu Speaking / Think-fast-on-the-feet skills
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