Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2022 - 31

Negotiating an annual learning and
development (L&D) budget with
business managers can feel like a
battle, especially if budgets are already
stretched. And being a successful
negotiator doesn't come easy to many
of us. The NEG-PRO approach can help
you build confidence and get the budget
you need.
Why Are Budget
Negotiations So
Challenging?
We've all had times when we've put
off difficult budget conversations and
suffered in the end from procrastinating.
The biggest hurdle is often getting
started. Why?
Many of us view negotiation as " winlose "
or " bargaining, " and it can be
intimidating to approach commercial
managers, who are often expert
negotiators. Our lack of experience,
time, resources or confidence can also
be hurdles and put us off.
Take the example of Ananya, a global
L&D lead in a large multinational
bank. Last year she and her team
implemented communications training
to upskill customer service teams in
three countries. They spent time and
resources
on
conducting
a
needs
analysis, content procurement and
advertising the program. They kept the
customer service country managers
informed, but when it came to approving
the budget, they consistently refused.
Why? The L&D team hadn't collaborated
with them from the start due to feeling
intimidated by these commercial leads.
Negotiations can be a positive,
collaborative process when approached
with an open mindset and an
understanding of the budget-holders'
perspective. Read on to learn how.
So, How Can I Negotiate
like a Pro?
THE NEG-PRO NEGOTIATION
APPROACH
The British Council's NEG-PRO
framework is a systematic approach that
can be used as the backbone to your
planning and execution of negotiations
with budget holders. It will enable you to
prepare effectively, communicate with
confidence and overcome challenges to
reach successful outcomes that benefit
all stakeholders. (See Figure 1.)
Crucially, NEG-PRO is a framework
rather than a linear process. In the early
days of using it, you may prefer to work
through the six steps in sequence.
Once you have more experience, you
will be able to vary the order or exclude
elements to create an approach that
best suits your context.
Build Confidence and
Get Started: Navigate,
Establish and Grow
Relationships
The first three elements of the NEG-PRO
process can help you plan effectively,
get started and approach discussions
with increased confidence. During this
phase, you need to:
NAVIGATE the context by
doing your groundwork.
ESTABLISH the basis
of your pitch.
GROW the relationship.
TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - FALL 2022 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE
Figure 1.
N
E
G
P
R
O
NAVIGATE
ESTABLISH
GROW RELATIONSHIPS
PITCH
REFRAME
OUTCOME
To navigate the context successfully,
it's important that you scope out and
understand the needs of the budgetholder.
In these conversations, you
will need to adopt the attitude of a
collaborator rather than competitor -
listening carefully, showing empathy
and checking your understanding.
Use open-ended questions to probe their
pain points, objectives and motivations.
Equally important is asking follow-up
questions - always ask " Why? " and
" How does that impact the business? "
You might reveal hidden challenges and
fears based on their past experiences.
These deeper insights will enable you to
develop a detailed, targeted pitch that
addresses specific concerns up front.
If you're having difficulty getting
information through questioning, try
multiple-choice questions, such as
exploring whether productivity or
engagement is a greater barrier to
performance currently. If this also fails,
| 31
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Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2022

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