HDC's OBJECTIVES & METHODS

We aim, through practising what we preach, to:

*     improve knowledge of the anatomy of negotiation  
*     remove inappropriate attitudes  
*     develop appropriate attitudes 
*     increase sensitivity to others  
*     get participants to recognise, accept and overcome their fears  
*     make personal discomfort an advantage
*     develop specific techniques of negotiation
*     inculcate a positive, adult attitude  
*     motivate positive action  

This is achieved in a four-and-a-half day course, over 60 hours.  It is not unusual for participants to describe the experience as having changed them for life.  In the majority of cases, participants adopt a totally new, profit-driven approach to business.

We act on the assumption that a successful negotiation takes place in the opponent's head.

We enlighten participants as to what is happening inside the opponent's head by helping them to see what is happening inside their own.

This is shown by a mixture of instruction and video recordings of the individual which, when played back and analysed, allow him to see for himself when he is acting appropriately, and when inappropriately.

He is helped to see and accept what motivates this behaviour, how to control it and how to use that of his opponent to achieve his own ends.
Most people are so tied up with what they want, with their strengths and weaknesses, with how they are going to use their position – or, more often, how they are going to make the best of their weaknesses – that they overlook the fact that they can use the other side's position to gain their own ends.  We overcome this fundamental weakness.  Participants recognise the cause of their own discomfort in negotiation, how to cope with it and how to use the discomfort of others to personal advantage.  We demonstrate, and have accepted, that negotiation is about influence and manipulation; making the other person do what you want him to do; and that there is no connection whatsoever between selling and negotiation - between persuasion and the use of power. This last is a revelation akin to the Second Coming to most sales people.

The chances are: the better you are at selling, the worse you are at negotiating.