Negotiator 2.0, Business Negotiation
by Andrey Yatsenko · 9 modules · 35 cases · Free
Andrey Yatsenko's live negotiation training as sparring practice: enter a negotiation only when it pays, pick your distance, hold your phase, bargain move for move, and survive multi-round campaigns. Each side has a hidden agenda and a hidden weakness, find the other side's real need and work through it. Begging, circular arguing, and open threats get you nowhere.
What you'll practice
Each case is a short role-play against an opponent who wants something else. You play it out in your own words, a referee rules on every move, and a coach debriefs you after the sparring match.
Module 1 · Andrey's Original Cases
The three classics from the live training sessions, exactly as Andrey runs them. Work through the other side's need, not your own.
Hotel Problem
High season in Spain, a guest's booked room has been given away, and the only alternative costs 50 EUR a day more. The owner wants this problem gone, ideally at the guest's expense.
Buying a Car
The red Passat a regular customer always wanted finally arrived, two weeks after they settled for the black one. Now the customer wants the dealership to swap the black one for it, without paying the difference.
Office Wars
An IT company shares a floor with a travel agency whose visitors bring noise and mess, and the agency's management just shrugs. Time to bring the landlord in, except he wants no part of it.
Module 2 · Enter or Don't: The BATNA Test
Negotiations are lost at the door. Should you enter at all, should you enter now, should you go in yourself, and what does merely showing up signal?
The Bathroom Is Half Done
Your bathroom renovation is 60% done, the fixed-price contract is signed, and the foreman just announced that materials went up, he needs 2,500 EUR more, and his crew 'has another job waiting from Monday'.
The Audition
A 240-store retail group loved your trade-fair demo. Their Head of Innovation proposes the standard way in: a free two-day workshop and your architecture deck, 'consider it your audition'. A dream client, and no budget attached.
Just a Quick Chat About the Retainer
Five months into a twelve-month retainer that's delivering, your biggest client's marketing VP calls 'just to chat about the terms', the new CFO wants 20% off. The contract is signed. The chat starts now.
Seventy-Three Keys
A freshly serviced 1976 Fender Rhodes, listed at 3,200 EUR by a seller who is 'moving abroad, must sell'. You're standing in his half-packed apartment with the lid open. Careful what your face says.
Module 3 · Negotiation Distance
Letter, call, video, in person: shorten the distance to build rapport and probe their position, lengthen it to defend your terms.
Crew Standing Idle
Mid-renovation, your contractor calls: rotten pipes behind the shower wall, 1,800 extra, and the crew walks at lunch unless you say yes now. You can't see the wall from your office.
The Client Who Went Quiet
Your biggest client used to call you weekly; now the renewal is six weeks out and all you get is one-line emails days late. A bigger agency is circling. Get back in the room.
The Today-Only Contract
Your coffee supplier's rep is sitting in your café with a 12-month renewal, a 9% price hike, and a sweetener that expires 'when I drive off tonight'. He wants a signature before the espresso goes cold.
The Neighbor Upstairs
Three weeks ago a leak from the flat upstairs soaked your kitchen ceiling. The neighbor answers one message in five, always the same: 'insurance will handle it.' The ceiling can't wait much longer.
Module 4 · Phases & Holding Your Ground
Phase 0: contact. Phase 1: agreement in principle. Phase 2: terms. Hold your phase for a whole round; move the other side to the next phase only with a question.
The Contract Is the Contract
Flour is up 18%, energy up 30%, and your fixed-price contract with the café chain runs six more months. The purchasing manager's reply to your letter requesting a 9% increase: 'Prices are fixed until January.' You have fifteen minutes.
Tomorrow at Eight
9 p.m., your own doorstep: your neighbor has booked a crew for the shared fence, tomorrow, 8 a.m., 2,400 EUR total. Your half is 1,200 EUR, payable tonight, 'or the deposit burns and it's your fault.'
No Extra Budget
Your biggest client's marketing director slides a brief across the table: a three-week launch campaign, kickoff tomorrow at nine, zero extra budget, signed today. A rival studio, she says, answers her emails within the hour.
The September Slot
Your kitchen needs two more weeks of work, your lease runs out on the 31st, and the contractor just moved you to September. 'The schedule is set. There's nothing to discuss.'
Module 5 · The Three Tools & Social Positioning
Ratio (reasoned argument), pressure, manipulation, and your stance (from above, from below, or as a partner), which decides which tools you can use at all.
The Chairman's Signature
The city gave you a month to legalize the glazed balcony the previous owner built, and the building association chairman whose signature you need 'does not legalize violations.' Win a signature that the owners of eleven other flats couldn't get.
Nine Hours Late
Your trailer reached the furniture factory nine hours late and stopped their line, now the production director is storming into your office demanding a penalty and a permanent rate cut. Keep the account without buying peace at full price.
The Frozen Invoice
A supermarket chain owes you 18,400 EUR and its category manager has perfected the shrug: 'the system is slow, everyone waits.' Get your money out of a man no threat can reach.
The Vanishing Crew
Your only bathroom sits 80% finished, the crew hasn't shown up in twelve days, and the foreman answers every third call with 'next week, for sure.' Get him back on site this week, without him hanging up for good.
Module 6 · Bargaining: The Second Phase
The 4-step algorithm: prepare your corridor (bargaining range), withstand the opening demand for a discount, bargain move for move, refuse the final concession. Never state a number you don't mean.
The Bathroom Standoff
Three weeks into your bathroom renovation, the contractor wants 1,500 EUR more and three extra weeks, or he moves his crew to a better-paying job. Your tiles are off the wall, and his story doesn't add up.
The SLA Squeeze
Your biggest client's COO opens the contract renewal with three demands and a tender threat: four-times-faster response, a new penalty clause, and not a euro more. Sign something you can actually deliver.
The Pet Deposit
The perfect pet-friendly flat, a landlord still scarred by the last tenant's dog, and a deposit demand three times the listed amount. Talk him down without losing the flat.
The Competitor's Quote
A 14-location restaurant group wants your coffee, but their procurement head opens with a competitor's quote 2.50 EUR under yours and won't 'even start' without a discount. Win the contract without giving away your margin.
Module 7 · Written & Remote Rounds
Written negotiation is a different sport: short letters, a call to action with a reason to act, soft ultimatums, and no raw pressure, because letters get reread.
600, Deal?
You're selling your road bike for 900 EUR and a buyer in the app's chat opens at 600 EUR, citing a cheaper one across town. Every reply you type either holds your price or melts it.
The Booth You Can't Use
Your product launch died, but the 10,000 USD expo booth you signed for didn't, and canceling costs half. The organizer handles everything in writing, so the fee will be argued by email.
The Offer in Your Inbox
The job you want just arrived as a PDF: 68,000 EUR, two thousand below what you earn today. HR discusses compensation in writing only, so your next email IS the negotiation.
Moving the Wedding
Your father's surgery just landed in the middle of your September wedding plans, and the venue's email says moving the date costs 40% more, or cancel and lose the 1,500 EUR deposit. All changes in writing.
Module 8 · Staged Negotiations & Round Discipline
Multi-round campaigns: adaptation creep (conceding bit by bit as you get comfortable), the three warning signs to check before each round, when to end a round, and why overstaying broadcasts neediness.
The Diesel Gambit
Round three with your freight carrier was booked for a single agenda item, the late-delivery penalty. The carrier's commercial director arrives with a different plan and a diesel chart.
The Fourth Family Meeting
Three meetings and a signed memorandum settled how you and your sister split your parents' estate, Friday it goes to the notary. Today's meeting was only supposed to be about dad's car.
Nearly Done
Your fixed-price €8,000 bathroom renovation is 85% finished and a week late, and the contractor wants a word before mounting the last fittings. It's the third 'small thing' he's found behind a wall.
The Last Small Thing
Signing day for your agency's €11,000-a-month renewal with your biggest client, and their procurement lead has 'one last small thing' from the CFO before she routes it for signature. It always sounds small.
Module 9 · Team Play & the Long Game
Keeping the manager and the decision-maker in sync, splitting the other side's team, keeping long-term clients, and parting so they come back.
The Deputy Head's Door
Your daughter scored 92 on the advanced-stream test, the cut-off is 85, but the deputy head says mid-year moves are against firm policy, and six families have already been refused this year. September is five months away, and your daughter can't wait.
The Nanny's Notice
After three years, the nanny your daughter adores gives notice: another family is offering her 14.50 an hour, and she answers them by Friday. She isn't asking you to match anything, she just thought you should hear it from her.
The Procurement Wall
After four years of servicing the plant, your maintenance contract is up for renewal, and the plant's procurement manager wants 15% off, 'management has ordered it', while the operations director stays out of the room. Three weeks to signature, and the wall isn't moving.
Seven Percent
After six years, your biggest client announces a national rival will do it all 7% cheaper, and the board wants visible savings. Your consolation prize: a seat in a tender 'on the same terms as everyone'.