Course description

Whether you're asking for a pay rise, weighing up a job offer, setting a freelance rate, facing a supplier's price rise or buying a car, you're negotiating. This course shows you how to do it calmly and well: prepare properly, find out what both sides really need, trade rather than give things away, and write up what you agreed. It's practical, plain-spoken and built around UK workplaces and UK rights.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each one ends with a short Try it exercise. You follow three people through 2026: Lakshmi, a senior customer service adviser in Salford, who asks for a pay rise and then negotiates a team leader job offer; Ayrton, a freelance illustrator in Eccles, who raises his rate, keeps scope creep in check and gets an overdue invoice paid; and Eilonwy, operations manager of a family bakery with three cafés, who negotiates with her flour supplier, a catering customer, a dairy using pressure tactics and her own team. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers, a cheat sheet and printable tools, including a preparation planner, an evidence of value log, an offer comparison sheet, a change request note, payment chasing emails, a question bank, a concession tracker, a tactics spotter card, role-play cards with a brief for each side, email wording, a deal write-up and a reflection log.

What you'll learn

• What negotiation is: where you already negotiate every day, five ways of approaching a negotiation, negotiating fairly and honestly, and a self-check of your starting point.
• Preparing for a negotiation: positions versus needs and motives, your alternative if you don't agree, your target and walk-away point, researching value, and the one-page preparation planner.
• Asking for a pay rise: choosing your moment, building an evidence of value log, the pay conversation itself, what to ask for when money is tight, and following up in writing.
• Negotiating a job offer: pausing before you say yes, the whole package including holiday and pension, your day-one right to request flexible working, one complete counter-proposal, and handling counter-offers.
• Negotiating as a freelancer: a rate you can defend, holding your price, scope creep and change requests, contract terms worth negotiating, and getting paid on time with your statutory late payment rights.
• Suppliers, customers and your own organisation: price rises, payment terms and minimum orders, discount requests from customers, internal negotiations, and long-term deals with many parts.
• Skills at the table: questions that uncover needs, listening and silence, making the first offer and anchoring, conditional concessions and a concession tracker, and creating options.
• Hard tactics and difficult moments: good cop bad cop, nibbling and false deadlines, staying calm, strong emotions, deadlock and walking away, and the ethics of negotiating, with role-play cards for both sides.
• Channels, power and confidence: negotiating by email, phone and video, power differences, confidence, nerves and adjustments, fair treatment, and cultural differences.
• Everyday deals, closing and your plan: cars, home repairs, bills and your consumer rights, writing up the deal, when to get advice from Acas, a union or a solicitor, and a final project with your own negotiation plan.

Who it's for

Employees and managers negotiating pay, job offers, workloads and budgets; freelancers and the self-employed negotiating rates, contracts and payment; small business owners and buyers negotiating with suppliers and customers; and anyone who'd like better deals on cars, repairs and bills. You don't need any previous experience.

What this course is, and isn't

This course teaches negotiation skills and explains the main UK rules in plain words, including flexible working, written terms, holiday, pensions, late payment and consumer rights. It gives general information, not legal or financial advice. For anything with a lot at stake, such as a large contract, a lease or a dispute, it explains when and where to get advice, including Acas, the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland, trade unions, Citizens Advice and solicitors.

What will I learn?

• Prepare for any negotiation with a one-page planner covering needs and motives, your alternative, your target and your walk-away point
• Research what something is worth and set an opening figure you can explain with evidence
• Ask for a pay rise with an evidence of value log, good timing and a clear written follow-up
• Negotiate the whole job package, including holiday, pension and your day-one right to request flexible working
• Set and hold a freelance rate, manage scope creep with change requests and use your statutory late payment rights with business customers
• Negotiate with suppliers and customers on price, payment terms, minimum orders and other terms, and trade rather than give
• Use questions, listening, silence, anchoring and conditional concessions to reach better deals
• Spot pressure tactics such as good cop bad cop, nibbling and false deadlines, and respond calmly and ethically
• Negotiate well by email, phone and video, and handle power differences, nerves and cultural differences
• Use your consumer rights in everyday deals, write up what was agreed and know when to get advice from Acas, a union or a solicitor

Frequently asked questions