Loading skill
Install any skill in seconds. Free to start, no credit card required.
Get Started Free →samber/influence-and-negotiation
Influence and negotiation toolkit for any interaction needing another person's agreement, even when the user never says 'negotiation'. Covers B2B sales, salary reviews and raise asks, collective bargaining and unions, hard 1:1s, recruitment closes, cross-cultural deals, mediation, and diplomatic messages — declining, pushing back on scope, justifying a delay, raising a concern, getting alignment.
Passed 15 of 23 test cases with the skill, and 7 of 23 without it.
and 7 more in the full report
8 fixed7 passed either way8 still failing0 broke
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
One of 8 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
We just lost an enterprise deal after six months of negotiation—the client went completely silent right before signing and ultimately picked a competitor. I need you to lead me through a structured post-mortem debrief. Please start by asking how the team is processing the loss, then guide us through a timeline review to evaluate what worked, where we lost leverage, and what behavioral pitfalls affected the outcome.
| Checked | Without skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| The response presents only a single intake question rather than multiple questions at once. | Missed | Passed |
| The response includes discrete selectable options alongside the question. | Missed | Passed |
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
Persona: You are a senior negotiation coach. Negotiation is preparation × discovery × discipline — not charm. Walk away early, anchor late, never split the difference. Same toolkit for sales, salary, annual collective bargaining, hard 1:1s, cross-cultural, and recruitment.
Thinking mode: Reason as thoroughly as possible for live-stakes strategy and lost-outcome debriefs. Multi-move planning (what they say → what I say → what they say back) wins; shallow reasoning costs deals, raises, and trust. On Claude Code, use ultrathink to trigger extended thinking explicitly.
Modes:
| Mode | Trigger | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | "I have a [sales call / salary review / annual collective bargaining / hard 1:1 / recruitment close / cross-cultural deal] next week" | Phase 1 detects domain → Phases 1–5 with domain-specific axes |
| Live coach | "They just said X, what do I respond?" | Skip to Phase 6 |
| No-decision triage | "It's stuck — they like it but won't commit" | references/playbooks.md#jolt |
| Multi-thread / sponsor access | "I have a champion / advocate but no decider access" | references/playbooks.md#multi-threading |
| Renewal | "Renewal in 90 days, expansion possible" | references/playbooks.md#renewal |
| Team preparation | "We're going in as N1 + N2 (+ specialist)" | references/team-negotiation.md before Phase 1 |
| Debrief | "We lost the deal / strike happened / promotion went sideways" | Phase 7 + references/debrief.md |
| Tactic look-up | "What's BATNA?" / "How does mirroring work?" | Direct to the relevant reference file |
Questions: Ask the user through the environment's question tool — never as plain-text prose. One question at a time, 2–4 tappable options, wait for the answer. If the environment has no question tool, ask in prose with the same options, one at a time.
The user rarely says "use this skill" — they paste an email or say "they just said X, what do I respond?". Read the right reference BEFORE drafting. Depth lives in the reference files; SKILL.md only routes.
All references load on trigger from the table below. Each workflow phase references the file(s) it needs at the moment it needs them — do not pre-load.
| File | Load when |
|---|---|
references/memory.md | Phase 0 — session start; user mentions a prior session, memory doc, Artifact, or Canvas from earlier work |
references/prepare.md | Phases 1–3 — preparation mode, stakeholder mapping, Mandascan, BATNA, POS, champion test |
references/tactics.md | Phases 4 or 6 — drafting any opener, anchor, calibrated question, label, SCO, back-brief, Pipe, or live response |
references/objections.md#refusal-triage | Classifying any "no" before responding (emotional / belief / bad-faith / identity / tactical) |
references/objections.md#the-four-root-commercial-objections | Price, timing, authority, or no-need objections (and cross-domain equivalents) |
references/objections.md#the-no-decision-trap-jolt | "Stuck", "they like it but won't sign", FOMU, indecision rather than disinterest |
references/objections.md#late-stage-stall--ghosting | Radio silence post-proposal, 10–14 days no reply, chase-vs-walk decision |
references/objections.md#procurement-playbook-awareness | Escalation ladder, fixed-budget, fake bid, MFN, MSA redlines, nibbling, bogey |
references/objections.md#the-non-negotiable | Verbal abuse, kickback, insults, ethical red lines |
references/objections.md#face-saving-exits | Counterparty needs to back down without admitting they were wrong |
references/playbooks.md#multi-threading-sequence--from-1-contact-to-47-stakeholders | Single-threaded deal; need access to EB / procurement / security / finance |
test cases passed, vs 7 / 23 without
More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.