Certified Customer Negotiation Specialist
For those who negotiate with customers, vendors and internal areas: preparation, influence, running the table and conflict without losing the relationship.
- Questions
- 50
- Duration
- 60 min
- Passing score
- 70%
- Investment
- $100
The pass mark is fixed: you pass with 70% correct answers, with no curve and no comparison with other candidates.
- Changed your mind? Ask for a full refund within 14 days of purchase, if the voucher has not been used.
- Your voucher never expires. Take the certification exam when you are ready.
- If you do not pass, your next attempt is half price for 90 days.
- The credential never expires and has no annual fee. You pay for the certification exam once.
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 certification exam. Read each one and see where you stand.
Fundamentals of negotiation
6 questions · 12% of the exam
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
8 questions · 16% of the exam
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
7 questions · 14% of the exam
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
8 questions · 16% of the exam
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
7 questions · 14% of the exam
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
7 questions · 14% of the exam
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
7 questions · 14% of the exam
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.
Test your knowledge with the Open Assessment
The Open Assessment has twenty questions at the level of the certification exam, with the result on the spot and a score for each domain. It is the honest way to decide whether you are ready.
Test your knowledgeSee what the questions are like
Two questions from the free open assessment. The certification exam uses different ones in the same format: a work situation and a decision.
Surveys of business negotiations show that most deals close at a value close to that of the first offer presented. Which practical conduct follows from that observation?
- APreparing the opening reference carefully, because it usually conditions the whole range in which the deal settles.
- BAlways leaving the first offer to the other side, so as to preserve information and observe their behaviour before exposing any figure of your own.
- CAlways opening at an extreme value, because the further away the opening, the better the final result obtained.
- DAvoiding any numerical reference at the opening and running the conversation only by interests until the final phase.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The effect of the first reference is strong enough to justify preparing it rather than improvising it. That does not mean always opening, nor opening at an extreme value: an opening with nothing behind it is discarded and costs credibility. Refusing any reference hands the anchoring to the other side by omission.
A manager needs the support of an area with which he had a falling-out last quarter and concludes that there is nothing to be done there. Which principle of working with influence does that conclusion ignore?
- AThat an area with a bad history should be bypassed through higher levels.
- BThat anyone is a potential ally, because an alliance is built on common interest and not on prior goodwill.
- CThat the earlier falling-out has to be formally settled before any request.
- DThat support is obtained through the authority of whoever asks, and not through the relationship between the parties.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Treating a bad history as a definitive impediment rules out from the start a good share of the support available. An alliance rests on common interest, which can exist even where the relationship is cold. Bypassing through a higher level settles it once and creates permanent opposition.
Study from the source of the certification exam
Practise the topic with a free tool
No sign-up tools on subjects of this certification, to apply at work what the certification exam assesses.
No course is required
The certification exam is the same for everyone, and how you prepare is your call: a course, a book, or the experience you already carry from the job.
- Changed your mind? Ask for a full refund within 14 days of purchase, if the voucher has not been used.
- Your voucher never expires. Take the certification exam when you are ready.
- If you do not pass, your next attempt is half price for 90 days.
- The credential never expires and has no annual fee. You pay for the certification exam once.
Your access to the certification exam arrives by email as soon as the payment clears, and it does not expire. Payment is handled by Stripe.
Sample credential
Certified Customer Negotiation Specialist
- Holder
- Emily Katherine Thompson
CCNS-862T-2CRA
Frequently asked questions about the certification exam
›What is the certification exam like?
It is an online multiple-choice certification exam, taken in your own browser, with no scheduling and no exam centre. Questions describe work situations and ask for a decision, rather than testing memorised definitions. Some ask for more than one option, and the screen says how many to select. The number of questions, the duration and the passing score for each exam are on the certification page.
›What is the passing score?
The passing score varies by certification and is published on each certification exam page, alongside the number of questions and the duration. There is no curve and no comparison with other candidates: your result depends only on your answers. There is no partial credit on multiple-response questions either, where the whole set has to be right.
›Can I retake the certification exam? Do I have to wait?
You can retake it, and there is no waiting period and no limit on attempts. What each new attempt requires is a new voucher, because each voucher is worth one attempt. Questions are drawn afresh each time you open a certification exam, so a retake is not a repeat of the previous paper. If you do not pass, you receive a coupon to buy the new attempt at the same certification for half the price, valid for 90 days.
›Does the voucher expire?
A voucher bought on the site does not expire. Vouchers issued to an institution in bulk may carry a deadline set at issuance, and in that case the date is shown with the code. If you lost the email, the code is also in your account, under Certification exams, once your address is confirmed.
›Can I cancel my purchase and get a refund?
Yes, within 14 days of purchase, as long as the voucher has not been used. Write to [email protected] from the same email used in the purchase, saying you want the refund. We return the amount through the same payment method and cancel the voucher in the same act, so the code stops working. A voucher already used is not refundable, even within the 14 days, because the attempt is consumed when the certification exam is opened.
›Does the certification expire? Is there renewal or an annual fee?
No and no. A PMCert credential does not expire: there is no expiry date, no periodic retesting, no renewal fee and no annual dues to keep what has already been earned. You pay for the certification exam once. The only way a credential stops being valid is revocation, which is an administrative act with a recorded reason, not an automatic expiry.
Questions about the certification exam →All frequently asked questions →