Negotiation Archives - Aksconsult

Renegotiating an Existing Contract Doesn’t Damage Trust (Being Unprepared for It Does)

Marina Akchurina — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:54:51 +0000

Most executives approach renegotiating an existing contract with caution, softening the request and ready to retreat at the first sign of pushback. That instinct gets the risk backwards. What the other side is actually reading is not the request itself, but whether the business making it still looks reliable under pressure. Preparation is what answers that question.

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Why Negotiation Training Doesn’t Stick (And What L&D Leaders Are Beginning to Change)

Marina Akchurina — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 18:04:27 +0000

Most negotiation training builds competence: vocabulary, frameworks, a temporary lift in confidence. Far fewer programs change how a participant relates to the negotiation itself, especially when conflict is involved. That shift, not better case studies or longer follow-up, is the real test of whether training actually worked.

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When the Other Side Stops Replying: Reading Silence in a Negotiation

Marina Akchurina — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:39:13 +0000

When a counterparty stops responding in a negotiation, most people interpret it as bad news. It rarely is that simple. Silence in a business negotiation carries information, but the information depends entirely on what kind of silence it is. Reading it correctly, rather than reacting to it, is what separates a stalled negotiation from one that simply slowed down.

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How Counterparts Test You in the First Twenty Minutes

Marina Akchurina — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:07:00 +0000

The first twenty minutes of a commercial negotiation are not relationship-building. They are diagnostic. Experienced negotiators use routine opening moves to test your preparation, urgency, alternatives, and process awareness. Most people miss this entirely. By the time the parties start discussing substance, the information asymmetry is already in place.

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Negotiating from a Weaker Position: Recurring Mistakes in Asymmetric Commercial Negotiations

Marina Akchurina — Wed, 13 May 2026 13:54:15 +0000

When the other side holds most of the formal power, the weaker party's outcome is determined less by that asymmetry than by a small number of recurring, self-inflicted mistakes. Stronger counterparties rarely need to win the negotiation. They need the weaker side to lose ground unnecessarily, and most of the time it does.

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Aggression as a Tactical Signal in Commercial Negotiations

Marina Akchurina — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:41:58 +0000

Aggressive behaviour in commercial negotiations is routinely treated as an obstacle to be managed. In practice, it tends to be a signal worth reading. Understanding whether that pressure is reactive, strategic, or driven by something else entirely determines whether your response stabilises the negotiation or accelerates its breakdown. This article sets out a framework for making that distinction under pressure.

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Power and Leverage in High-Stakes Negotiations

Marina Akchurina — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:15:58 +0000

In high-stakes negotiations, the party with more leverage is not always the larger or more powerful one. Leverage is rarely where it appears to be, and it rarely stays where it starts. Understanding how it actually forms, and how it shifts, is what separates a well-prepared negotiator from one who mistakes position for advantage.

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