In the pharmaceutical industry, negotiation isn’t a skill reserved for contract teams or procurement—it’s a daily discipline for commercial and medical professionals navigating complex, high-stakes conversations. Whether you're aligning with an HCP, a payer, or an internal stakeholder, your ability to move a conversation forward while preserving trust and integrity has never been more critical.

Too often, negotiations fall into adversarial traps: positional posturing, ego-driven standoffs, or persuasive tactics that strain relationships. This module reframes negotiation as a collaborative process—one that depends on understanding the other person’s perspective, communicating with clarity, and navigating the conversation with both strategy and integrity.

Participants will learn how to recognize when positional negotiation is necessary—and when it's sabotaging outcomes. They'll develop tools to read the moment, manage emotional undercurrents, and frame proposals in ways that resonate with what decision-makers actually care about.

Skills covered include:

• Pre-call planning to uncover obstacles and set your strategy

• The difference between arguing with your customer and creating arguments within your customer

• Mapping stakeholder values to create alignment through shared beliefs

• Framing proposals that allow the other party to “save face”

• Using calibrated questions to uncover motivations and reveal value

• The importance of recognizing and naming customer emotions to build trust quickly

• Strategies for building rapport without relying on surface-level small talk

• Avoiding the “boomerang effect” when challenging entrenched views

• How to identify and work with ego-involvement and anchoring bias

• How to evaluate your personal tendencies in conflict—and manage your strengths under pressure

• How to recognize manipulative tactics used by difficult people—and neutralize them

• The role of BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) in understanding leverage and options

This module helps professionals navigate difficult conversations with the confidence to steer them—not just survive them.