Why We Drill, Not Teach
The difference between knowing a technique and being able to apply it when a negotiation is live, the pressure is real, and the other side is pushing back.
The Problem With Most Negotiation Training
Most negotiation training follows a familiar pattern. A trainer presents frameworks — BATNA, ZOPA, interest-based negotiation — with slides and diagrams. Participants nod. There's discussion. Perhaps a brief role-play. Then everyone returns to their desk with a workbook and good intentions.
Three weeks later, a supplier calls with a price increase. The frameworks are gone. What remains is the habitual response — the one that was there before the training. The flinch. The early concession. The agreement to "take it away and discuss internally" when a clear position was possible right then.
The knowledge was acquired. The skill was not. These are not the same thing.
What This Isn't
- Motivational presentations about win-win outcomes
- Slide decks explaining negotiation frameworks
- Abstract role-play with no commercial context
- Confidence-building exercises
- Generic communication skills training
- One-day workshops with no follow-through
What This Is
- Technique drilling in commercial pressure conditions
- Live scenarios based on real Irish business situations
- Video recording and structured review of every round
- Specific, technical feedback on what broke down and why
- Immediate re-application of corrected technique
- Three-session programme with progressive complexity
The Foundations of Our Approach
Skill Requires Repetition
A technique applied once in a safe environment is not a skill. It becomes a skill when it has been applied repeatedly under pressure, failed, corrected, and applied again until the execution is reliable without conscious effort.
Video Reveals What Presence Hides
In the moment of negotiation, attention is divided. The video captures what participants cannot observe in themselves — the tell that signals discomfort, the rushed concession, the moment where a stronger position was available and not taken.
Context Determines Transfer
Skills learned in commercial context transfer to commercial situations. Our scenarios are drawn from real situations Irish businesses face — not generic exercises. When a participant faces a real supplier negotiation, they've already done a version of it.
Feedback Must Be Specific
General encouragement does not build skill. Feedback must identify the exact moment where technique failed, explain what should have happened instead, and give the participant a clear correction to apply in the next round.
"The goal isn't to know how to negotiate. The goal is to negotiate well when the stakes are real, the other side is experienced, and the comfortable option is to give ground."
Commercial Negotiation in the Irish Market
Irish commercial culture has its own characteristics. Relationship preservation often takes priority over outcome optimisation. The reluctance to appear difficult can lead to positions being abandoned too quickly. The concern about future dealings can cause present concessions that set poor precedents.
Blue Titanium programmes acknowledge these dynamics directly. Participants learn how to be firm without being adversarial, how to hold a position without damaging a relationship, and how to use the specific social and commercial conventions of Irish business to their advantage rather than against themselves.
Scenarios are set in Irish commercial contexts — the supplier is Irish, the client is Irish, the pressures are the ones that Irish businesses actually face. This specificity matters for transfer of learning.
Ireland-Based Delivery
Programmes delivered across Ireland with scenarios specific to the Irish commercial environment.
Group and Individual Formats
Team programmes for organisations and individual formats for business owners and professionals.
Three-Session Structure
Enough sessions to build skill through repetition without demanding excessive time from busy professionals.
See What the Programme Covers
Explore the structure of our three-session programme, the scenarios we use, and how the format is adapted for different professional contexts.
What We Offer