Negotiation training for sales teams: hold your prices, win the deal, keep the customer
Most suppliers give money away in negotiations because they believe demands nobody has to prove. Our negotiation training teaches your sales team to find out in every price negotiation whether the customer is bluffing or has reached a real limit, and to close confidently in both cases. Your team trains on its own proposals, with professional business actors playing the buyer and a senior trainer who has negotiated prices for years. In English or German.
Companies that train with us
Negotiation is a craft. And a craft can be trained.
Negotiation training is professional development in which people learn to prepare, conduct and close negotiations. In sales this means: justifying and holding your own price, putting buyers’ demands into perspective, trading concessions for something in return, pushing through price increases and running annual reviews so that you end up with an order at a price your company can live on.
Many negotiation seminars on the market are designed for everyone at once: procurement, sales, managers, project leads. They explain the Harvard concept and BATNA, and afterwards your field sales team still does not know what to say when the buyer says “too expensive” for the third time. We train each side of the table for its own situation, with its own cases and a counterpart who plays exactly the other side.
How we use the terms that come up when you search for negotiation training:
Negotiation from the seller’s side: price, terms, price increases, annual reviews, negotiating with procurement. In-house, with business actors, with an implementation phase.
The part almost every team needs first: the price negotiation with the buyer, from the first “too expensive” to the close. Bookable as a stand-alone seminar or as a module in the programme.
For procurement teams: preparing supplier negotiations, negotiating terms and price increases, recognising sales tactics. Also in-house, with a business actor playing the supplier. On request.
Develops the entire sales process from prospecting to existing customers. Negotiation is one module of six there. To sales training.
We never know whether what the customer says about price is true
That is the core of every B2B price negotiation. The buyer says “too expensive”, “the competition is cheaper”, “the budget is fixed”, and your salesperson cannot check any of these statements. So they believe them. And because they believe them, they give in. Four principles our negotiation training is built on:
Not because the buyer is so good, but because the seller signals that there is still room: “What did you have in mind?”, “Where would we need to be?”, “We have already sharpened our pencil.” Those are discount signals, not a negotiation strategy.
Anyone who pays 50 euros more for a TV because the shop is round the corner is not deciding on price. Neither are buyers: security, convenience, recognition, total cost and personal risk weigh more heavily. They just do not talk about it.
Every customer asks for more than they need. That is not a character flaw, it is their job. By the way, anyone who negotiates hard is highly interested: nobody haggles over something they do not want. The only question is how your team tells a bluff from a real limit.
It consists of preparation, a clear stance and a handful of techniques you can call on under pressure. Negotiating is not a talent, it is a craft. And a craft can be trained until it sticks.
The key question before any discount
Would my discount change anything about the customer’s decision? If they buy from me anyway, the discount is given away. If they will not buy anyway, it has no effect. A concession only makes sense if price really is the sticking point and you are willing to move. That is one case out of four. In the other three, your team gives in today anyway, because it does not ask the question.
That is why we train the mindset first, then the technique. Anyone who has understood that a discount achieves nothing in three out of four cases negotiates with a calm the buyer feels immediately.
For teams where procurement always seems to hold the stronger hand
Our clients sell complex products and services to professional buyers: industry and mechanical engineering, electronics and measurement technology, software, building materials and retail, logistics, pharma and services. The trigger for negotiation training is almost always the same: margins fall even though revenue is fine. A closer look shows discounts being given that nobody asked for, and price increases getting stuck in the conversation.
Annual reviews with corporate procurement, framework agreements, bonus tiers, price increases for customers who account for 20 percent of revenue. Here a single conversation decides six-figure sums.
Proposals that land in procurement and come back with “You will have to meet us halfway.” Competitor comparisons, target prices, tenders and the question of when no is the better answer.
Engineers and consultants who convince on substance and give in on price because they do not want to put the relationship at risk. For them, negotiation is often the most uncomfortable part of the job.
Sit at the table themselves with their most important customers and negotiate framework agreements and price increases personally. For them we also offer the training as 1:1 coaching.
Knowing the Harvard concept does not mean you negotiate any better
Negotiation theory fits on two pages: interests instead of positions, know your alternatives, set anchors, trade concessions. Knowledge is not the problem. The problem is the moment an experienced buyer goes silent, frowns, and your salesperson offers five percent of their own accord after four seconds. That reflex does not disappear by listening. It disappears through repetition under pressure.
- For procurement, sales and managers at the same time
- Role plays with colleagues who give in after two minutes
- Textbook case studies, not your price list
- One or two days, then the trainer is gone
- Success is measured by the feedback form
- A programme for your side of the table, in-house for your team
- Negotiations against business actors who master buyer tactics
- Your proposals, your customers, your live negotiations as cases
- Modules, twelve weeks of support for real negotiations, review
- Success is measured by price realisation and discount rate
Price negotiation seminar: the core module of every sales negotiation training
Most enquiries for negotiation training start with the same sentence: our team gives in too quickly. That is why price negotiation is not a chapter for us but the centrepiece, bookable as a stand-alone seminar of one to two days or as the first module of a longer programme. Your team trains on its real proposals, against a business actor playing the buyer, with the tactics your team meets every day.
Between round one and round three lie 40 minutes, feedback from the business actor from the buyer’s perspective, and the realisation that a friendly, clearly reasoned no does not damage the relationship. It is where the real negotiation begins.
Nine buyer tactics your team will recognise and answer after the seminar
A selection from procurement’s bag of tricks. In the concept call we clarify which tactics your customers really use, so that the business actor plays exactly the conversation your salespeople will have next week.
The most common sentence in B2B, and almost never an objection but a test. Anyone who names a discount now confirms that the price had room in it.
In the training: Put it in perspective first, then answer: too expensive compared with what? And the counter-question that opens up the frame: “Apart from price, what else matters to you in making a good decision?” Behind “too expensive” there is usually not a competing offer but a habit.
Sometimes true, often incomplete, occasionally made up. The buyer does not have to prove the comparison, and your salesperson believes it anyway.
In the training: Take the comparison apart: scope, delivery time, service, risk, total cost instead of unit price. And ask why the buyer is still talking to us. Anyone who really can buy cheaper and wants to does not negotiate any more, they place the order.
The opening monologue: “You are on the shortlist, two competitors are cheaper, the decision now depends only on price. What is your new price?” Competition, demand, justification, bait, consequence, question, all in 40 seconds.
In the training: Leave the launch ramp where it is. Breathe deeply, acknowledge inwardly that it was well built, and then: “I understand, price matters to you. Which other points would you like to settle today?” Anyone who answers the launch ramp negotiates on the buyer’s turf.
A figure set before the proposal and therefore seemingly objective. It rarely is.
In the training: Budget is one variable, scope is another. If the budget really is fixed, the scope changes, not the price per unit of work. And first the question of whether the order will be placed today if the scope fits.
First the price, then the payment terms, then the delivery costs, then the training on top. Each individual demand looks small.
In the training: Put every point on the table before negotiating any of them: “We will come to price in a moment. What else needs to be settled so that we can close today?” Then you negotiate the package, not the slice.
“Next year the big roll-out is coming, then we will be talking about completely different volumes. Show us now that you are a partner.” The return lies in a future nobody guarantees.
In the training: Concessions only in return for something signed today: tiered prices from the volume that actually materialises. What is not binding today is not paid for today.
“I have to take this to my boss, and he will not accept it like this.” The buyer is negotiating with someone who is not in the room.
In the training: Bring in the higher authority, but on both sides: “Then I will discuss it with my management as well.” And clarify beforehand what exactly the boss needs in order to agree. Often it is not the price.
“We decide on Friday, I need your best offer by then.” Add silence after the price is named, a warm meeting room, a second buyer playing the bad guy.
In the training: Holding a silence can be trained, and in the training we do exactly that until it sticks. Time pressure gets a counter-question: “What happens on Friday if no decision is made?” And good cop, bad cop loses its effect as soon as the team can name it.
The relationship as leverage. Emotionally effective, because your salesperson genuinely values the relationship.
In the training: Precisely for that reason: “You already benefit from the best terms we have. We reward partnership through development and volume, not through one-off discounts.” Loyalty is a reason for reliability, not for a discount.
Preparation: ten minutes that make the difference
The price negotiation is decided before the conversation. Every participant learns to set a negotiation corridor in ten minutes: anchor, target, limit and the line beyond which no is the better answer. Plus five key questions (what do I want to achieve, why, how, who am I negotiating with, what do I need to watch out for) and a list of what the team can give, what it asks for in return and what it never gives.
And the most important preparation lies outside the negotiation: a full pipeline. The strongest negotiating position belongs to whoever does not need the deal. That is why prospecting and negotiation belong together for us.
Price increases are price negotiation in reverse, and often the more pressing issue for account management teams: raw material prices rise, the increase has to go through, and the salesperson feels guilty about it. Available as a separate module; more on the page Pushing through price increases (German). If you would like to read up on the method before the training, our guide to B2B price negotiation (German) explains buyer tactics, preparation and phrasing in detail.
One percent on price means up to twenty percent profit
A discount looks small because it is thought of as a percentage of revenue. It is big because it hits as a percentage of profit. With a five percent return on sales, a single percentage point of discount costs a fifth of the profit. The table shows how much more your team would have to sell to win back a discount. In practice nobody manages that, which is why price discipline is the strongest profit lever a sales team has.
Calculation: additional volume needed = discount divided by (contribution margin minus discount). Applies to every product and service with variable costs. In the concept call we work it out with your figures.
What runs differently after the negotiation training
The perfect negotiation has three features: your team finds the highest price at which the customer will close. It closes at that price. And the relationship is at least as good afterwards as before. Tug-of-war and discount battles are replaced by professional negotiation. Four things change reliably when the programme is completed in full.
“Too expensive” is followed by a question, not a percentage. Discount signals like “Where would we need to be?” no longer come up. The team has spoken its answers to the most common buyer lines against the business actor so often that it can call on them under pressure.
In every negotiation your team finds out whether it has to move on price or not, and can say no in a friendly way without putting the relationship at risk. The customer gets to feel like the winner, and the salesperson has held the quoted price.
The team holds price conversations with existing customers actively instead of by letter, knows the reactions and has an answer to them. “Let us give it a try” becomes a planned process with a meeting, a story, arguments and a fallback option.
Average discount, share of orders at the first quoted price, price increase achieved in percent: the team sees its own numbers, and sales leadership can show in the review what the training has achieved.
Three building blocks that set our negotiation training apart
Part of the method goes back to Tim Taxis and his German bestseller «Die perfekte Preisverhandlung». Marvin Verweyen ran Tim Taxis Trainings from 2018 to 2022. Since then the method has been developed further in several hundred trainings and extended by what makes negotiation training effective: a counterpart who does not give in, and an implementation phase.
The buyer in the training is a trained actor with sales and negotiation experience. They are briefed on your cases, know your price list and your competitors’ arguments, and cannot simply be talked round. They build launch ramps, go silent, bluff and play the higher-authority card, just as your customers do. After each round they say what worked from the buyer’s perspective and where they noticed there was still room to move.
The difference from role play with colleagues: nobody goes easy on anybody, and the same negotiation is run again straight away, better.
Three core skills carry every negotiation: preparation, because negotiating is a craft and not an art. Mindset, because top negotiators are mentally clear and not willing to give money away. Method, because there is no time to think in the decisive moment. The basic pattern is simple enough for anyone to use and robust enough to hold against professional buyers: say no in a friendly way, tell a bluff from a real limit, concessions only in return for something.
The method is described in 22 strategies in the book Du kannst nicht NICHT verhandeln by Marvin Verweyen and Axel Schmidt (in German).
Anything not applied within a few days of the training is very likely to be lost again. That is why we spread the training over modules across eight to twelve weeks. In between, every participant gets a challenge from real business: prepare three price negotiations with a corridor, hold a price increase conversation with an existing customer, close a proposal without a discount. The results are discussed in the next module, with the real numbers.
From the first call to the review: how negotiation training at selling2b works
Every programme follows the same framework. We adapt scope and emphasis to your team, but not the sequence, because the sequence is why the training still works three months later.
With sales leadership and management we clarify who your team negotiates with, which demands come up regularly, where margin is lost and what should change measurably. You meet the proposed trainer before you decide.
Short interviews with three to five participants provide the real cases: the upcoming annual review, the customer who has been renegotiating for months. The business actor is briefed on your customers: industry, procurement organisation, typical tactics, tone. Every participant gets a preparation task based on their own case.
At your premises, in a conference hotel or remote. Short input, then negotiation against the business actor, feedback, next round. Participants spend around 80 percent of the time at the negotiating table, not in front of slides. Six to twelve participants per group.
Every major negotiation is prepared with a corridor and checklist, challenges run, and the trainer supports with follow-ups every one to two weeks: debriefing negotiations, sharpening responses, reviewing the numbers. If you wish, with access to the selling2b Academy (in German) for deeper learning between sessions.
With sales leadership: what has changed in behaviour and in the numbers, which negotiations were handled differently, what remains open, what is the next stage. We measure by behaviour and price realisation, not by the feedback form.
Six modules from which we build your negotiation training
No team needs everything. In the concept call we decide which modules are trained and in how much depth. Price negotiation is almost always included; everything else depends on who your team negotiates with and where margin is lost.
Why 70 percent of negotiators believe they have less power than the other side, what the buyer really risks by not buying from you, which beliefs hold your team back, and how to build a negotiation corridor with the five key questions in ten minutes.
The core module: naming and justifying the price, putting “too expensive” into perspective, eliminating discount signals, saying no without putting the relationship at risk, telling a bluff from a real limit, negotiating in relative rather than absolute terms, closing at the first quoted price. Details above.
What professional buyers learn in their seminars and how your team recognises it: launch ramp, bluff, false visions, competitor offers on the table, time pressure, good cop bad cop, personal attacks, burning supplier resources before the contract. A trained answer for every tactic.
Preparing price increases, announcing them with a story and pushing them through in conversation, regaining trust after tough increases, negotiating framework agreements and bonus tiers, running annual reviews with corporate procurement without losing a slice of margin every year.
What the buyer really wants (security, convenience, recognition, total cost), recognising your own triggers, questions instead of arguments, storytelling for bad news, applying the Harvard concept and BATNA so that they hold up in a conversation with a buyer and not just in the textbook.
Six closing techniques for negotiations, documenting results, four reflection questions after every negotiation. For sales managers: which KPIs matter, how negotiation preparation becomes a team routine, and how to coach your salespeople before big conversations.
Topics we go deeper on
Each topic has its own page with methods, examples and phrasing (in German):
In-house, compact, remote or one-to-one: routes to negotiation training
The standard format is the in-house programme for teams. For individual negotiators, distributed teams and managing directors who sit at the table themselves, there are alternatives built on the same method.
For teams of six or more, at your premises or in a conference hotel in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. One to three modules, business actor, twelve weeks of support. In English, German, French and other languages.
One to two days on price negotiation only, in-house, with a business actor. For teams that want to work quickly on a clearly defined problem. With a shorter support phase if you wish.
For distributed teams: sessions of two to three hours every one to two weeks via Teams or Zoom, with negotiation simulations by video. Many procurement negotiations run this way today anyway.
For managing directors, owners and key account managers ahead of a specific negotiation: preparation, simulation with a business actor, debrief. Confidential, remote or on site.
The online courses on price negotiation and pushing through price increases for self-study, as preparation for an in-house programme or as a refresher. Also available as a module for your own learning system. Courses are in German.
When you want to develop not just negotiation but the whole sales process: prospecting, needs analysis, proposal, negotiation, existing customers. Negotiation is one of six modules there.
Du kannst nicht NICHT verhandeln: 22 Strategien für erfolgreiche Verhandlungen (in German)
A surgeon would never say they picked up operating on the side. Yet most companies treat negotiation exactly like that, as if it needed no craft. Marvin Verweyen and Axel Schmidt, Head of Commercial Excellence with negotiations worth billions, have written down the method behind our trainings in 22 strategies: a toolbox rather than an encyclopaedia, every strategy used in practice, from buying a kitchen to a million-euro deal.
Topics include: preparation is everything with the five-question checklist, do not fall in love (BATNA and ZOPA), lay the first stone (anchoring), learn to say no twice, the bluff test, close while the other side is still smiling, and negotiating in the digital world. If you would like to read it before the training, it is available on Amazon.
Trainers who have negotiated prices themselves, and actors who play the buyer
Every senior trainer at selling2b has their own sales career behind them, with annual reviews, price increases and negotiations against professional procurement, and is trained in the method. In negotiation training they work in tandem with a business actor: a trained actor with business experience who plays the buyer so convincingly that participants forget after five minutes that it is a simulation.
Industry, language and team decide which tandem suits you. You meet both in the concept call before you commit.
Three examples from building materials, software and measurement technology
Negotiation and price negotiation programmes that could run in a similar way for you. Quotes are translated from German. More examples are on our references page (German).
Bauwerk Group
ProgrammeA long-standing partnership with several negotiation and pricing programmes for field and inside sales in three countries, in German and French, with a business actor: pushing through price increases at a time of rising raw material prices, regaining trust after tough pricing rounds and anchoring a new pricing system with clear guardrails in the sales team.
ResultsA sales team that handles price increases with a story instead of a guilty conscience, and a pricing system the salespeople see as backing, not as a restriction.
imc AG
ProgrammeTraining on successful price conversations for the sales team of a learning software provider: handling price negotiations confidently, including price comparisons and budget questions, recognising and answering buyer tactics such as anchor prices, alleged time pressure and comparisons with alternatives, selling value instead of price. With negotiation simulations on the team’s own customer cases and access to the selling2b Academy.
ResultsA shared approach to price conversations across the team, and trained answers to the lines that used to lead to discounts.
ACCRETECH (Europe) GmbH
ProgrammePrice negotiation training for the sales team of a precision measurement technology manufacturer: procurement’s bag of tricks, stakeholder analysis by influence and attitude, the buyer’s role versus the technical department, justifying the price instead of defending it, negotiation simulations on the team’s own cases.
ResultsA team that distinguishes between the technical department and procurement, prepares negotiations with several stakeholders and justifies the price instead of defending it.
Philip Rafferty and Wolfgang Schatz delivered a great, authentic and honest training for our sales staff. Initial scepticism among colleagues quickly gave way to the enthusiasm both of them sparked in younger and older salespeople alike. Wolfgang is very charismatic and able to put himself into every kind of customer and supplier role. Philip is a very good facilitator, motivator and observer who worked out numerous tips and suggestions for improvement with our staff. Unfortunately the time went by far too quickly. We will soon book a refresher to deepen what we learned and start the new year perfectly prepared.
Thomas GottschallCEO, EIDEX GmbH
You are doing a great job, by far the best sales training I have ever had.
Participant, sales SwitzerlandBauwerk Parkett AG, training feedback
With new approaches, the trainings stand out clearly from other sales trainings. Our sales staff use the tools and concepts they learned successfully to perform better in everyday sales.
Bernhard BrandlHead of Transport Logistics, Kiessling Spedition
Absolutely recommended. What was especially exciting was that a professional actor was there to simulate real sales situations. That made the theory immediately tangible and helped us reflect better on our behaviour.
Hakan IcerHead of Sales, Cox Automotive
Sebastian and Vincent were excellent. They made the topics genuinely practical. The delivery was relaxed and not by the book.
Participant, sales SwitzerlandBauwerk Parkett AG, training feedback
What negotiation training costs and what drives the price
We price per programme, not per participant, and give you a binding range after the concept call. For perspective: a single avoided discount of three percent on a 200,000-euro order is worth 6,000 euros. These are the five factors that determine the price.
- Trainer daysHow many modules with how many days, plus concept and follow-up time. The compact price negotiation seminar starts at one day; a full programme has two to three modules.
- Business actorIn negotiation training, the business actor is there on every training day because they are the core of the method. For very large groups or multilingual teams we plan two actors.
- Participants and groupsSix to twelve per group. We split larger teams so that everyone negotiates often enough themselves instead of just watching.
- Support after the trainingTwelve weeks with follow-ups is standard. If you want close support in preparing big negotiations or coaching for managers, plan in more time.
- Location and languageOn site in Germany, Austria and Switzerland or remote, in English, German or French, and in other languages with trainers and actors from the team. Travel costs are charged separately and individually.
What you get in the initial call
- An honest assessment of whether negotiation training solves your margin problem, or whether the issue lies in the price list, the proposal process or targets
- A proposal for scope and format, from a compact seminar to a full programme
- The trainer and business actor tandem that suits you, with reasons
- A price range within one working day
The initial call takes 30 to 60 minutes.
Questions about negotiation training
Do you offer a stand-alone price negotiation seminar?
Yes. Price negotiation is the core module of our negotiation training and can be booked as a stand-alone seminar of one to two days, in-house for your team, with a business actor playing the buyer. Your team trains on its real proposals. If you want to go further after the seminar, you can add modules on price increases, annual reviews or buyer tactics.
How much does price negotiation training cost?
The price depends on trainer days, business actor, number of participants, length of support, and location and language. A compact price negotiation seminar starts at one training day with a business actor; a full negotiation training has two to three modules plus twelve weeks of support. We price per programme and give a binding range after the concept call, usually within one working day.
What do I say when the customer says we are too expensive?
First of all, nothing that sounds like a discount. In most cases “too expensive” is a test, not an objection. The trained response is a friendly, reasoned no and a counter-question: “Apart from price, what else matters to you in making a good decision?” That opens the conversation to everything the customer cares about besides price, and that is almost always more than they admit.
What is the difference between negotiation training and sales training?
Sales training covers the whole sales conversation: opening, needs analysis, value arguments, objections, closing. Negotiation training starts where the customer basically wants to buy and the issue is price and terms: putting demands into perspective, trading concessions, pushing through price increases, negotiating with professional procurement. The two belong together, because strong value arguments make negotiation easier. If you want to develop the whole process, sales training is the right fit.
Do you also train buyers?
Yes. For procurement teams we offer a separate negotiation training: preparing supplier negotiations, negotiating terms and price increases, recognising sales tactics, with a business actor playing the supplier. We train sales and procurement separately, each with its own cases and its own perspective. Just mention it in the initial call.
What does a business actor do in negotiation training?
A business actor is a trained actor with business and negotiation experience who plays the buyer in the training. They are briefed on your customers, know your proposals and your competitors’ arguments, and negotiate the way your customers do: with launch ramps, silence, time pressure and the higher authority. After each round they give feedback from the buyer’s perspective. Then the same negotiation is run again.
How long does negotiation training take?
A single module takes one to two days. A programme consists of one to three modules plus twelve weeks of implementation with follow-ups. From the concept call to the review typically takes four to five months. A single seminar day without follow-up support is possible, but we recommend at least a short support phase, because the first real negotiation after the training is the most important one.
How many participants make sense?
Six to twelve per group. In negotiation simulations everyone has to sit at the table several times themselves, otherwise it stays a spectator sport. We split larger teams into groups, with two business actors in parallel if needed.
Do you work with the Harvard concept?
Yes, as a foundation, not as the programme. Interests instead of positions, developing options, objective criteria, hard on the issue and soft on the people: these principles are built into the modules. The difference from a Harvard seminar is that we apply them exclusively to negotiations between sales and procurement and train them until your team can call on them under pressure.
Does negotiation training work online?
Yes, as interval training with sessions of two to three hours every one to two weeks. Negotiation simulations with a business actor work well by video, because many negotiations with procurement take place by video today. For the kickoff we still recommend meeting in person; the implementation phase runs remotely anyway.
Is the training suitable for experienced key account managers?
Especially for them. Experienced negotiators benefit most from working on their real cases: the upcoming annual negotiation, the price increase for the biggest customer, the tender in which procurement is pushing the price down. The business actor is briefed on exactly these situations, and for experienced salespeople the feedback from the buyer’s perspective is often the first honest feedback in years.
How do you measure the success of negotiation training?
On two levels: behaviour and numbers. Trainers, business actor and sales leadership observe behaviour in simulations and follow-ups. Depending on the goal, the numbers are average discount, share of orders at the first quoted price, price increase achieved in percent or contribution margin per order. We agree what will be measured in the concept call.
Do you also train in Switzerland and Austria?
Yes. selling2b is based in Zug and trains in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on site and remote, in English, German, French and other languages. Trainers and business actors on the team know the differences in negotiation culture between the three countries.
