Conversations & Negotiation

Conversations & Negotiation The two-day seminar for anyone who leads conversations in which something gets decided: you learn to listen instead of argue, to negotiate interests instead of positions, and to run difficult conversations so that the relationship is better afterwards than before.

Conversations & Negotiation at a glance

• Format: 2 days on site + self-learning track
• Level: foundation to advanced
• Participants: max. 16
• Language: English
• Certificate: AEI certificate of attendance
• Investment: 490.00 euro net plus VAT

Most conversations that go wrong do not fail for lack of argument. They fail because two people talk at once, nobody listens, and both conclude the other side is being unreasonable. Once you recognise the pattern, you can leave it.

The most expensive mistake in such conversations is not the wrong wording. It is the wrong order: arguing first, listening second. Whoever explains their own position first only collects objections afterwards.

This seminar works at exactly that point. You practise the basic moves of a good conversation: listening, asking precisely, tolerating silence, uncovering interests. Then we move to the hard cases — criticism, complaints, objections, deadlocked negotiations with suppliers. You work on your own cases throughout, not on constructed examples.

What you take away

• A listening method you can use in any conversation without sounding artificial.
• Questioning techniques that open information rather than making people defensive.
• The distinction between position and interest — the lever in every negotiation.
• A structure for difficult conversations that holds under resistance.
• Wording for criticism that is heard without wounding.

Your learning objectives

• You recognise within the first minutes what the other side is really after.
• You can hold your own position without damaging the relationship.
• You run a criticism conversation in a way that is traceable and evidenced.
• You de-escalate before a conflict becomes a case.
• You prepare negotiations so that you have alternatives and do not decide under pressure.

The levers at a glance

Listening is not a pause in speaking. Listening means getting the other side to describe their situation in full. Until that has happened, you are negotiating against a picture you made up yourself.

Whoever asks about interests negotiates with more options. A position is a demand; an interest is the reason behind it. Two sides can hold incompatible demands and still satisfy both interests. That is the difference between a compromise that leaves both unhappy and a solution that holds.

Preparation decides half of it. Whoever knows their alternatives negotiates more calmly. Whoever does not, negotiates anxiously — and does not notice.

Difficult conversations need a structure, not a mood. A criticism conversation that starts with an observation, a effect, a request and room for the other side's answer rarely escalates. The same content, delivered unordered, regularly leads to a row. The structure does not replace the feeling, but it carries when things get uncomfortable.

Who is this seminar for?

For people who regularly lead conversations whose outcome they do not control alone.

• Managers who have to raise criticism and keep postponing it.
• Buyers and salespeople who want better terms.
• Project leads coordinating between departments.
• Anyone who has been carrying a difficult conversation around and wants to finally have it.

The seminar assumes no rhetoric training. Anyone who leads conversations professionally brings everything needed.

It is not for people looking for a script with which to persuade others. We work on mutual understanding, not on persuasion — anyone who wants otherwise notices on day one and is disappointed on day two.

Investment and dates

Participation costs 490.00 euro net plus VAT, including the self-learning track, materials and certificate of attendance. There are six dates per year in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and live online, plus an in-house version for teams. All dates are listed on this page.

Funding through a training voucher or professional development programme is possible; we check what that looks like in your case before booking.

After the seminar

You keep the materials, the listening and questioning framework as a one-page checklist, and the recording of the key sequences. Two weeks after the seminar you receive a short follow-up with one exercise for practice.

If you like, we follow up on the conversation you have not dared to have in one-to-one coaching. That is not a required part of the seminar but an offer for the cases that would be too personal in the group.

For teams the seminar is available as an in-house event using your own cases. The structure stays the same, the examples come from you.

Programme: 2 days

Day 1 – Listening, asking, negotiating

• What decides a conversation
• Listening as a core skill
• Asking questions properly
• Interests instead of positions
• Preparation decides

Day 2 – Difficult conversations and closing

• Criticism and complaints
• Handling objections
• Negotiating with suppliers
• Terms and alternatives
• Closing and follow-up

Both days run from 09:00 to 16:15 with breaks in the morning, at midday and in the afternoon.

Each day has three parts: a short introduction to the pattern, an exercise on your own case, and a review in the group. At the end of day one you formulate a small task for practice; at the start of day two we look at what came of it.

The seminar includes a self-learning track. It contains the patterns from both days as short units with examples and a self-test each. You can work through it before the date to clarify terms, or afterwards to repeat what stuck and what did not. It does not replace the two days — it keeps what you learned from fading after four weeks.

Our approach

We work on your conversations, not on examples from a textbook. At the start of each exercise you decide which situation you brought in; at the end you plan when you will have it. Between the two days there is time to test one sequence in practice.

The exercises are short and repeat in variations. That is deliberate: a conversational pattern is not changed by insight but by repetition in a safe setting.

Work happens in pairs, in threes and in the group, with changing partners. Every participant receives feedback on their effect, not only on their wording. Level and group size are deliberately limited: with 16 people an anonymous lecture is not possible.