Designing practical negotiation learning for enterprise sales teams

The challenge

The Sales Excellence programme needed a consistent approach to strategic negotiation for Account Executives and their managers. The learning had to address different responsibilities while helping the two groups work together during preparation and difficult customer conversations.

The task was to turn experienced practitioners’ knowledge into a structured learning experience. I needed to identify what learners should do differently, distinguish seller needs from manager needs, and give the development team enough detail to build practical learning.

My role

I conducted structured SME discovery, analysed the findings and researched negotiation approaches. I developed recommendations for the AE learning path, presented a beginner curriculum for stakeholder review and produced a detailed digital design specification.

I handed over the research, curriculum and digital design specification for course development.

What the discovery revealed

The interviews exposed a need to distinguish selling from negotiating, strengthen preparation and make responsibilities clear. They also highlighted the importance of realistic practice, coaching and reflection. Using thematic analysis, I organised the qualitative findings into codes and themes, then interpreted their implications for learning design.

Role clarity was a particularly useful finding. Account Executives needed to prepare and conduct negotiations, while managers needed to support preparation, coach and guide their teams. This helped define different learning needs within a shared approach.

The design decisions

I planned a progression from reflection and core concepts into guided application, then assessment and further practice. The design asked learners to practise using the planner in a simulated scenario, then apply it to a real opportunity.

The retained digital design contains four modules and 54 numbered entries. It specifies objectives, proposed screens, resources, timings, interactions, feedback and reflection prompts. Its estimated duration is 207 minutes.

Review and handover

I handed over the research, curriculum and digital design specification for course development.

Outcome

A four-module curriculum and detailed specification, passed on for course development.

What this demonstrates

The case shows how I make the reasoning behind a learning design visible: ask focused questions, analyse patterns, distinguish audience needs and turn the findings into a specification colleagues can use. It also shows the importance of testing a beginner design against the experience of the audience and making handover responsibilities explicit.