Free Agent Skill
Negotiation Prep
Prepare for a high-stakes negotiation or hard conversation using tactical-empathy techniques — labeling emotions, calibrated open-ended questions, mirroring, and getting to genuine "that's right" rather than a grudging "yes."
Use when: The user is preparing for a negotiation, a hard ask (raise, funding, pricing), a difficult conversation with a stakeholder, or a conflict where the other party's real position or constraints aren't yet clear. Not a fit for drafting the message itself in detail — pair with normal drafting help for that
Install this skill
Cursor, Claude Code and Codex
- Create a folder named `negotiation-prep`.
- Save the skill content below as `SKILL.md` inside that folder.
- Place the folder in `.cursor/skills/` for Cursor or `.claude/skills/` for Claude Code (or the equivalent path for Codex).
- Describe the task normally. Your agent loads the skill when its description matches.
Use this in ChatGPT or Claude (no code)
- Copy or download SKILL.md from this page (or put it in a folder named
negotiation-prep). - Zip that folder so the archive contains
negotiation-prep/SKILL.md. - In ChatGPT (Business, Enterprise, Edu or Healthcare), upload the zip under workspace Skills. In Claude.ai, add a Skill from the zip where your plan supports Skills.
- Describe the task in plain language — the skill loads when its description matches.
---
name: negotiation-prep
description: Prepare for a high-stakes negotiation or hard conversation using tactical-empathy techniques — labeling emotions, calibrated open-ended questions, mirroring, and getting to genuine "that's right" rather than a grudging "yes." Use whenever the user is preparing for a negotiation, a hard ask (raise, funding, pricing), a difficult conversation with a stakeholder, or a conflict where the other party's real position or constraints aren't yet clear. Not a fit for drafting the message itself in detail — pair with normal drafting help for that.
---
# Negotiation Prep
Most negotiation prep focuses only on what you want to say. This skill
focuses on the other side — their likely position, real constraints, and
the specific questions that would surface what they actually need instead
of what they say they need.
## The technique
**1. Separate their stated position from their underlying constraint.**
What they're asking for and what they actually need to be okay with are
often different. Ask: what would they need to be true for this to work
for them, that isn't the same as what they've literally asked for?
**2. Draft calibrated, open-ended questions, not closed ones.** Questions
starting with "how" or "what" that can't be answered yes/no put the
work of solving the problem onto the other side, which tends to produce
more honest information than a direct ask does. "How can we make this
work for both of us?" surfaces more than "can you come down on price?"
**3. Prepare labels, not arguments.** A label names an emotion or
position out loud without judgment — "it sounds like timing is the real
issue here" — and tends to get more genuine disclosure than arguing
against a stated position does. Draft 2-3 labels that might apply to their
likely state going into the conversation.
**4. Aim for "that's right," not "you're right."** "You're right" is often
just a way to end the conversation. "That's right" means they feel
genuinely understood, which is what actually produces movement. Prepare a
summary of their position specific and accurate enough that hearing it
back would produce a real "that's right."
**5. Know your walk-away, and don't fake urgency you don't have.** Be
honest with the user about what their actual alternative is (see
opportunity cost in `mental-models`) — a negotiator who doesn't know their
own walk-away tends to concede more than the situation requires.
**6. Prepare for the most likely objection specifically**, not a generic
one — ask what this particular counterpart, given what's known about
them, is most likely to push back on, and draft the response to that
exact objection.
## Output
The other side's likely real constraint, 2-3 draft calibrated questions,
1-2 draft labels, and the user's own honest walk-away point. Not a script
to read verbatim — a set of tools to use adaptively in the actual
conversation.
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