Certified Customer Negotiation Specialist

Who this is for

• You negotiate with external customers

  Sales, accounts, procurement or contracts. You negotiate price, deadline and scope in a repeated cycle with the same counterpart, and lose value for not having set your own floor before going in.

• You negotiate inside the house

  Project, product, operations or a support area. You need resources, priority or a decision from someone you have no authority over, with no price and no contract, and with the relationship necessarily continuing.

• You approve what others negotiate

  You set the mandate and the limit of authority and receive the deal finished. You need to know what to ask before authorising, and what separates a well-built agreement from one that is merely closed.

What you take with you

• A permanent verification code

  Anyone confirms your credential at pmcert.org/verify, without having to ask you for anything.

• Approval that does not expire

  A credential you earned does not lapse, asks for no annual renewal and charges no subscription.

• LinkedIn and a public profile

  Add it to your licenses and certifications section, or share the link to your profile.

• A certificate with your score by domain

  In PDF, showing how you performed in each area assessed.

What you need to know

Seven domains, drawn at random from a bank written for this exam. Read each one and see where you stand.

• Fundamentals of negotiation

  When a negotiation exists and when a decision is merely being announced: interdependence between parties with different interests. The difference between claiming value and creating value, and why a closed deal is not the same as a good outcome.

• Preparation and planning

  The work that settles the table before it: goal, floor, ceiling, the alternative you hold if there is no deal, and the range in which agreement can exist. Trading currency ordered by its value to the other side, not by its cost to you.

• Styles and self-knowledge

  Recognising your own preference before reading the other one, and adjusting pace, level of detail and way of deciding. Behaviour under pressure, which usually differs from the habitual one, and why a label is not a reading of style.

• Influence and persuasion

  The principles that make a request more acceptable and the tactics that rest on them, chosen by target, by moment and by the relationship ahead. The line between influencing and manipulating runs through what each one does with the information.

• Communication, listening and emotion

  The question that reveals the interest behind the stated position, and the moment when listening stopped and preparing the answer began. Naming the emotion of the other side without agreeing with it, and holding your own reaction when it would cost the outcome.

• Running the table

  What happens during: who opens and why, discovery in layers, an objection handled without immediate defence, a concession always with a declared return. Recognising deadlock and choosing between pausing, changing variable or closing.

• Conflict, power and relationship

  The disagreement that argument does not settle: sources of power that never appear on the org chart, the choice between conceding, imposing, avoiding and resolving, and how to recover a relationship after an unfavourable deal. When not closing is the best outcome available.