Negotiation isn’t just a skill; it’s an essential part of your toolkit, whether you’re a leader, salesperson, manager, entrepreneur, or navigating daily life. Remember, negotiation touches every aspect of our careers and is an inevitable part of our lives.

This Best Courses Guide is your pathway to negotiation success. Using Class Central, a search engine for online courses, along with other resources, we’ve selected the top negotiation courses. Whether you’re just starting or are an experienced negotiator looking to enhance your skills, this guide has something for you.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Top Picks
• What is Negotiation?
• Stats
• Why You Should Trust Us
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Here are our top picks

Related Guides

• Scrum
• Leadership
• Lean Six Sigma
• MS Power BI
• MS Project

Hidden Gems

• Emotional Intelligence
• Public Speaking
• Artificial Intelligence
• Meditation
• Notion

Popular Guides

• Drawing
• Graphic Design
• Chess
• AutoCAD
• American Sign Language (ASL)

What is Negotiation?

A negotiation is a tactical discussion to settle differences by reaching a resolution that all the parties find acceptable. Negotiations may take place between buyers and sellers, employers and employees or a country and another. A negotiation may take as little as a few minutes to as long as months or years, depending on the complexity of the matter at stake.

In a negotiation, one of the parties puts its position forward while the other will either accept the terms presented or counter with its own position and the proceeding continues until both parties agree on a compromise. According to Forbes, to negotiate effectively, you must understand your own worth, and have an action plan in place as you move forward with your requests.

Negotiation is the art of looking past conflicts to reach a common ground with your opposing parties. An ideal negotiation is one in which all the opposing parties stand to gain in the final proposal. The skills and tactics for a negotiation to be successful are, I believe, some of the most essential ones we need to be armed with.

Stats

• Together, all courses have over 3.1M enrollments
• 7 courses are free or free-to-audit and 3 are paid
• The Negotiation subject is followed by 15.2K learners on Class Central
• The most featured provider is Coursera with 7 courses.

Best University-Level Course for Beginners (Michigan)

Gain an advantage during negotiations and identify the possible traps hidden in them in Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills by the University of Michigan. George Siedel, an American author and professor at the Ross School of Business, will teach you everything from preparations to closing deals in this free-to-audit course.

If you want to know more about the course, check out my in-depth review here. This course has also been featured on 250 Top FREE Coursera Courses of All Time and The 250 Most Popular Online Courses of All Time.

You’ll learn:

• The four key stages: preparation, negotiation, closing, and performance evaluation
• How to conduct a negotiation analysis
• Strategies for using power effectively during negotiations and psychological tools
• Insights into creating binding contracts and when to involve legal advice
• Techniques for dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration
• Practical experience through an interactive negotiation simulation.

If you enjoy George Siedel’s teaching style, check out his other course on Making Successful Decisions through the Strategy, Law & Ethics Model.

Best University-level Course with a Strategic Playbook (Yale)

If you need a framework to analyze and shape negotiations, Introduction to Negotiation: A Strategic Playbook for Becoming a Principled and Persuasive Negotiator is for you.

This free-to-audit course allows you to penetrate within the conflicts to discover the underlying interests of the opposing party. After completing this course, you will be able to predict, interpret and shape the behavior of the opposite side.

This course has also been featured on 250 Top FREE Coursera Courses of All Time and The 250 Most Popular Online Courses of All Time.

You’ll learn:

• A foundational framework for analyzing and shaping negotiations
• How to make principled arguments that persuade others and uncover underlying interests
• Strategies for predicting, interpreting, and shaping the behavior of others in competitive situations
• Practical experience through negotiation case studies with other students
• Insights on a range of topics including preparation, making ultimatums, avoiding regret, and expanding the pie
• Advanced negotiation tactics for situations where you have little power or are negotiating over email
• The role of gender differences in negotiation and how to navigate them effectively.

Best Course to Understand the Science of Negotiation (MasterClass)

If you are looking for a course to dive into the science of negotiation, this is the one for you: Chris Voss Teaches The Art Of Negotiation. As an FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss persuaded terrorists, bank robbers, and kidnappers to see things his way. And through his MasterClass, he will be imparting his expert knowledge in this field.

In this course, you will learn:

• How to apply tactical empathy to understand and influence others effectively
• The power of mirroring and labeling in building rapport and gathering information
• Techniques for mastering your delivery during negotiations
• Strategies for reading and utilizing body language and speech patterns
• Methods to create the illusion of control and encourage cooperation
• The importance of saying “no” and how to use it to your advantage
• Identifying and leveraging “Black Swans” or unknown unknowns in negotiations
• Practical experience through mock negotiations, including salary discussions and high-pressure scenarios.

Best Negotiation Course for Team Leaders (Northwestern University)

Efficient collaboration is a result of good leadership, teamwork and negotiation. Through this free-to-audit course, you will be able to learn to develop and expand your leadership skills, design teams for collaboration, and craft well-planned negotiation strategies. If you want to know how to negotiate as a leader, High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation is for you!

The course instructor, Leigh Thompson, is an internationally recognized scholar on negotiation, group decision making, team creativity, teamwork and collaboration and has written 11 books.

In this course, you will:

• Become a more confident and capable leader: Master different leadership styles, boost team motivation, and navigate complex decisions with emotional intelligence.
• Build cohesive, productive teams: Learn how to set goals, embrace diversity, manage conflict, and foster creativity in your team.
• Negotiate win-win outcomes: Discover the power of BATNA, anchoring, and value creation to reach agreements that benefit everyone.

Best Concise Daily-life Negotiations Course (Chris Croft) 

This short course in Negotiation Skills, taught by expert Chris Croft, is designed for beginners and it’s a great course to understand how to handle daily-life negotiations. The course focuses on providing practical skills that can be applied in various settings, such as business, sales, and personal situations. It’s of short duration, making it suitable for individuals who want to quickly learn the essentials of negotiation.

Chris Croft, the course instructor, is an author, speaker, project manager, and one of the UK’s foremost leadership trainers.

In this course, you will learn:

• How to identify when and why to negotiate, overcoming personal barriers
• Strategies for planning your negotiation, including setting limits and preparing tradables
• Techniques for making opening offers and responding to the other party’s offers
• Various negotiation tactics, such as the vice, knocking, and salami techniques
• How to trade effectively to reach a win-win outcome and manage closing strategies.

Best Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Course (Macquarie University)

Becoming a positive influence in your organization requires strong conflict resolution and negotiation skills. Negotiation Skills: Negotiate and Resolve Conflict is a free-to-audit course taught by Dr. Andrew Heys, the Director of International Engagement in the Macquarie Business School. This course will help you hone those skills by helping you measure power and influence stakeholders while acting with integrity and purpose.

In this course, you will:

• Understand the dynamics of power and politics in decision-making
• Develop strategies for influencing stakeholders effectively
• Learn to act with integrity and purpose in organizational politics
• Recognize negotiation opportunities and differentiate them from conflict situations
• Analyze and plan interventions for successful conflict resolution
• Gain self-awareness about your conflict style and its impact on negotiations
• Navigate the “three negotiations”: content, process, and relationship
• Adjust your negotiation approach across cultural divides
• Manage complexity in negotiations, from multi-party situations to conflict transformation.

Also Great Concise Negotiation Course for Beginners (LinkedIn Learning)

This short course, Negotiation Foundations, is designed to help you learn the tactics that can help you succeed in every negotiation. Taught by Lisa Gates, a consultant and professional coach, it covers the core skills of interest-based negotiation to achieve win-win outcomes, a step-by-step strategy for negotiating everyday workplace issues, and techniques to navigate impasse and generate satisfaction on both sides of the bargaining table. It also includes tips, worksheets and practice opportunities to help develop your skills.

You will learn to:

• Develop a negotiation mindset and understand the three core negotiation practices
• Use anchoring and framing techniques to create mutual benefits
• Enhance your listening skills and build tactical empathy
• Trade things of value effectively and understand the right way to negotiate
• Research and prepare for negotiations, identifying priorities and designing options
• Utilize influence to engage allies and create an influence plan
• Navigate through conflicts and learn how to get past ‘no’
• Apply essential negotiation tips and strategies to deal with contentious tactics
• Adapt your negotiation skills for telephone, video conference, email, and text negotiations.

Also Great University-level Negotiation Course to Build Trust (Wharton)

This free-to-audit course, Negotiations by the University of Pennsylvania, will help you learn the dynamics of negotiations to help you craft a successful strategy and manage potential conflict while building trust.

You’ll learn:

• The fundamental framework and stages of the negotiation process
• Techniques for effective information exchange and offer presentation
• Strategies to improve negotiation outcomes, including leveraging and issue integration
• How to prepare for and execute employment negotiations
• Methods to detect and counter deception, and insights into ethics and trust in negotiations
• The impact of emotions on negotiations and how to regulate them for better results
• Skills to manage anxiety, diffuse anger, and use humor to build relationships during negotiations.

Best International and Cross-Cultural Negotiation Course (ESSEC Business School)

Culture, consciously or not, influences a huge part of who we are and so it seems natural that it may lead to conflicts from homes, workspace, communities and all the way across nations. Knowing how to navigate through these differences is no less than an art. International and Cross-Cultural Negotiation, a free-to-audit course, focuses on teaching the intricacies of reaching agreements for professionals in international business, diplomacy, or global project management.

You will learn:

• How to identify and understand cultural differences and their effects on negotiation
• Strategies to avoid oversimplifications and stereotypes in cross-cultural interactions
• The importance of cultural awareness in negotiation preparation and strategy
• How to adapt your negotiation approach when dealing with international counterparts
• Insights into specific national and regional negotiation styles, including French, Chinese, North American, and Middle Eastern
• The role of negotiation processes in multilateral and multicultural settings, with case studies from the European Union and the COP 21 climate conference.

Also Great Negotiation Course to Find Your Style (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women)

Fundamentals of Negotiation, with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, a free-to-audit course, will make you reconsider some common assumptions and preconceptions about negotiation, identify your preferred style and compare it with other styles of negotiation. It will equip you with the tools needed to negotiate confidently as you pursue opportunities for business growth.
In this course, you will:

• Understand the different styles and identify which best suits you, maximizing your effectiveness
• Learn to define your interests, leverage, and bottom line, crafting a rock-solid preparation plan backed by data
• Master the art of active listening, shifting leverage, and identifying the “zone of possible agreement” for win-win outcomes
• Whether it’s a business deal, salary negotiation, or personal conflict, you’ll learn to tailor your approach for optimal results.

Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 60 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 200,000 online courses and 200,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses.

First, I combed through Class Central’s Catalog and the internet to find a variety of free and paid courses, some with certificates. When choosing courses, I considered the following:

• Renowned Institutions: I looked for recognized institutions and platforms
• Instructor experience: I sought instructors with extensive experience in negotiation and engaging presentation styles
• Popularity: I checked numbers of enrollments and learners reviews to find popular courses
• Course content: I examined courses that covered a range of topics and presentation styles, including the basics and more advanced topics. I watched some course videos to sample courses I hadn’t already taken

Ultimately, I used a combination of data and my own judgment to make these picks. I’m confident these recommendations will be a reliable way to learn about negotiation.

Fabio revised the research and the latest version of this article.