Negotiation and Influence Skills for Leaders

Negotiation and Influence Skills is a five-day senior negotiation course delivered by Mars Training Centre in London, Dubai, Geneva, Istanbul and New York — designed for senior managers, directors and executives who routinely negotiate commercial, internal and stakeholder outcomes that shape the business.

Almost every senior decision is the output of a negotiation — with customers, suppliers, regulators, peers or one's own board. Most leaders learn negotiation by accident, on the job, picking up habits that may or may not serve them. The leaders who do consistently well are the ones who have done the deliberate work: preparing properly, holding their ground without burning relationships, knowing when to walk, and influencing without authority. This programme is built for senior professionals who want that deliberate work in their own practice.

Across five focused days you will work through the disciplines of senior negotiation and influence — preparation, principled bargaining, value creation, difficult tactics, influence without authority, and the small behaviours that decide whether a negotiation ends in a deal or a stand-off. The programme is heavily practical, with live negotiation simulations and faculty feedback across the week.

What You Will Learn

• Prepare for a senior negotiation to a professional standard.
• Apply principled negotiation frameworks to commercial and internal deals.
• Create value, not just claim it, in a negotiation.
• Recognise and respond to common tactics, pressure plays and difficult counterparts.
• Hold your position under pressure without damaging the relationship.
• Influence senior stakeholders without formal authority.
• Negotiate cross-culturally and across business contexts.
• Lead a negotiating team rather than negotiate alone.
• Know when to close, when to pause and when to walk away.
• Debrief and learn from negotiations in a structured way.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with a practical negotiation toolkit, sharper influence behaviours and the confidence to lead high-stakes negotiations, together with a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a senior leader who closes better deals, builds stronger commercial relationships, and influences internally without escalating every disagreement to the executive table.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior professionals, including senior managers and directors in commercial, sales and procurement; heads of function negotiating internal budgets and resource decisions; senior consultants and partners negotiating client and contract terms; senior legal, contracts and commercial managers; senior project, programme and transformation directors; general managers and country managers negotiating with partners and authorities; senior public-sector executives negotiating with suppliers and stakeholders; and family-business principals negotiating with banks, partners and family members. The seniority floor is senior manager or director level and above.

How the Week Unfolds

Day one establishes preparation and the negotiation mindset — what professional preparation actually looks like, and the assumptions that undermine senior negotiators before they enter the room. Day two covers principled negotiation and value creation, moving delegates from pure claiming toward deals that are both defensible and durable. Day three works on difficult negotiations and pressure: tactics, pressure plays, difficult counterparts, and holding position without damaging the relationship. Day four turns inward, to influence without authority and internal negotiation across peers, functions and one's own board. Day five consolidates the week with team negotiation, structured debriefing, faculty coaching and a personal action plan.