Strategic Response
The Negotiating Challenge
The client received a demand for a cost increase of over 20%
- Our client had agreed to a fee of $16.4M with a contractor for its part of a $250M construction project
- Subsequently, the contractor said it ‘needed $20M’ because it
had ‘underestimated costs in order to buy the business’ - The challenge was to respond to the demand and avoid a cost increase while protecting the project’s viability.
How ENS Helped
Our role was to help develop the negotiation strategy and prepare the negotiating team
- ENS looked beyond the requested price increase to focus on the other party’s need to manage project risk
- We focused the negotiation strategy on identifying and discussing risks via structured questioning
- And we encouraged the team to challenge resource estimates to provoke a more thorough identification and analysis of issues
- ENS facilitated intensive ‘dress rehearsals’ to help team members test assumptions and prepare for the unexpected
- Rehearsals revealed true individual negotiation skills as a basis for team selection - in some cases eliminating those who ‘talked tough but give way easily face to face’
- ENS provided an independent view on the other party’s perspective to assist the team during planning and rehearsals.
Outcomes
Costs were reduced by more than 20% and the business relationship was enhanced
- There was no price increase
- The final negotiated fee of $13M was a $3.4M saving on the original agreed price
- Overall, there was a paradigm shift from ‘negotiating at the margin’ to ‘renegotiating the contract’.
- The other party’s paradigm also shifted. It spoke of ‘the value of a structured negotiation approach’.
I would rate the course amongst the most highly dynamic I have attended. Operational training creates efficiencies in the delivery of our products and services with a minor effect on the bottom-line (10% - 20%). Negotiation training focused right in on where there is the potential to alter the bottom-line dramatically - up to 100%. I would urge anyone with a financial or human resource management responsibility to register your interest in future courses.
Once again I am able to put the excellent training I received in Chicago to good use. This time it was not our friends L-P but another customer that ended up telling me almost everything I needed to know to close the deal. It's amazing what you can glean by asking a few questions and then just listen. Many thanks once again for the opportunity to learn about your techniques, they will remain valuable tools in my kit bag.
Your workshop taught me how to think and act as a negotiator and not simply to accept supposed tried and tested theories or concepts.
The Professional Negotiator program has provided our management team with the techniques to optimise outcomes, irrespective of how simple or complex the negotiation environment.
I was able to keep a very important negotiation on track yesterday by focusing on building up the common ground. I was completely satisfied with the outcome as were all the other parties. There were times when we got into a bit of a stand-off about differences. When I refocused our attention to the common ground, the differences seemed much smaller. We were able to address the differences by building common future ground (agreed procedures) instead of different present ground.
By the way - this was the negotiation I planned during the course. When the face-to-face part started, it was much easier for me to guide the process toward my ideal content outcome.”
Thank you so much for your inspirational training program. I can say without hesitation that the ENS negotiator course was the best I have had the privilege to attend. Negotiation plays a vital role in my job and the tools that have been provided by ENS have definitely enhanced my negotiation skills. I have had several opportunities to use my new found knowledge and it has resulted in better than expected outcomes. I would thoroughly recommend the ENS Professional Negotiation and Influencing course to professionals wanting to enhance their negotiation skills and achieve improved outcomes.
I have been to the Harvard and Stanford negotiation courses and ENS outshines the others.
Excellent experience; 2 part workshop was a great idea, a good balance of theory and practice, professional trainer with amazing and relevant experience.
It’s the best newsletter I receive. It’s the only one I always read from top to bottom: print out, mark and read again. It’s great to receive a newsletter with short, well prepared, high quality content.
I have completed a Bachelors Degree and a MBA which gives you the theoretics of the business world. Your course ‘enables’ a business professional to negotiate and influence using the knowledge they have acquired through structured studies or practical experience. Your course is a must for any business professional who wants to navigate success in a fast paced, ego driven world. Ideally, I would like to see this type of course included in MBA programs offered by Universities.
ENS is the best process driven program available today, and I have looked at a lot of them. Based on the benefits derived it is the best value for money available.
I’ve now been on four negotiation courses and ENS is superior to the others in the following ways:
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Clear distinction between process and content, and the importance of process
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ENS manual is the most ‘content-rich’ resource on process that I have ever seen – the rest have ended up in the trash. This guide will remain in the collection on my desk for ready reference
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ENS client-oriented presentation made the workshop relevant to a very tough audience – our senior and executive management.
