Negotiation
Tactical negotiation for high-stakes conversations
Win high-stakes negotiations using FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss's tactical empathy techniques. This skill equips your AI agent with labeling, mirroring, calibrated questions, and the Ackerman model for getting better outcomes in any conversation.
Never Split the Difference
npx skills add wondelai/skills/negotiation --global This skill is compatible with Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and other agentskills.io-compatible agents.
What is the Negotiation skill?
Negotiation packages Chris Voss’s Never Split the Difference — the toolkit he used as the FBI’s lead international hostage negotiator — into a skill your agent loads before a hard conversation. It drafts labels, mirrors and calibrated questions, runs an accusation audit over your weak points, and plans concessions using the Ackerman model.
Key concepts from Never Split the Difference your agent applies
Tactical Empathy
Demonstrate understanding of the other side's perspective and emotions to build trust and influence.
Labeling & Mirroring
Use "It seems like..." labels and repeat the last 3 words to encourage the other side to elaborate.
Calibrated Questions
Ask "How" and "What" questions that guide the other side to solve your problems for you.
The Ackerman Model
A strategic 5-step bargaining process: 65%, 85%, 95%, 100% of target, using decreasing increments.
Getting to "That's Right"
The two most powerful words in negotiation — when the other side says this, a breakthrough follows.
When to use Negotiation — and when not to
Reach for it when
- A renewal call is on Thursday and the buyer has already opened with a demand for twenty percent off.
- Every deal lands on a split-the-difference compromise that leaves both sides quietly resenting it afterwards.
- You need to refuse a client and have the refusal hold without the relationship cooling by a degree.
- You’re walking into a salary or funding conversation and want their objections voiced before they can be used.
Reach for something else when
- What you’re selling is the problem, not how you’re discussing it — $100M Offers rebuilds the package itself.
- You’re setting list prices across a whole market rather than closing one deal — Monetizing Innovation handles that.
- You need more conversations before you need better ones; Predictable Revenue manufactures the pipeline.
- You’re persuading an anonymous audience through a page or an email — Influence Psychology is built for that.
Example prompts for the Negotiation skill
Prepare a negotiation strategy for my enterprise contract renewal using negotiation skill
Contract negotiationWrite calibrated questions for a salary negotiation using negotiation skill
CareerCreate a tactical empathy playbook for our sales team using negotiation skill
Sales trainingRole-play a price negotiation and coach me through it using negotiation skill
PracticeNegotiation vs the other Sales & Persuasion skills
All 6 Sales & Persuasion skills are free and install the same way — the only question is which framework fits the job in front of you.
| Skill | Based on | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| $100M Offers | $100M Offers — Alex Hormozi | Grand Slam Offer creation: Value Equation, pricing, guarantees |
| Negotiation | Never Split the Difference — Chris Voss | Tactical negotiation for high-stakes conversations |
| Influence Psychology | Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert Cialdini | Persuasion science and ethical influence |
| Predictable Revenue | Predictable Revenue — Aaron Ross | Outbound sales process and Cold Calling 2.0 |
| CRO Methodology | Making Websites Win — Karl Blanks & Ben Jesson | Conversion rate optimization methodology |
| Monetizing Innovation | Monetizing Innovation — Madhavan Ramanujam & Georg Tacke | Design the product around validated willingness to pay |
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the Negotiation skill?
Run npx skills add wondelai/skills/negotiation --global. It takes about 30 seconds and needs no account. The Negotiation skill then works in Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw and Hermes Agent — anything that reads the open agentskills.io format — and your agent loads it on its own when a task calls for it. It is free and MIT-licensed, and the source is at https://github.com/wondelai/skills.
Which book is the Negotiation skill based on?
It packages Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss — former FBI lead hostage negotiator. The skill distils the book's method into instructions your agent follows while it works, covering tactical empathy, labeling & mirroring and calibrated questions. It sits in the Sales & Persuasion part of the library.
What’s the actual difference between mirroring and labelling?
A mirror is repeating the last one to three words your counterpart said, as a question, then staying silent. It costs nothing and almost always buys more information. A label names the emotion or dynamic you’re reading — “It seems like the timing is the real problem here.” Mirrors keep them talking; labels prove you understood, which is the part that defuses. The skill picks between them by what the conversation is doing.
How is this different from the Influence Psychology skill?
Influence Psychology is designed in advance and aimed at many people at once — a pricing page, an onboarding sequence, a testimonial block. Negotiation is live, aimed at one person whose position shifts as you speak, and useless if scripted too tightly. Cialdini gives you principles to build into a surface; Voss gives you the next thirty seconds. Sales teams tend to use both, at different points in the same deal.
Isn’t tactical empathy just manipulation with better manners?
Tactical empathy means understanding the other side’s position accurately — not agreeing with it, and not performing warmth you don’t feel. It works because it’s real: a label that misreads the room gets corrected immediately, which is itself useful. The tactics extract information and make people feel heard, and both of those serve an agreement that survives contact with their finance team. Anything you talk someone into against their interest tends not to.
Can it help when the other side holds all the leverage?
Only at the margins, and it will say so. These tactics change what you learn and what you give away; they don’t change who can afford to walk. If your alternative to this deal is genuinely bad, the honest move is to improve it first — build a second option, stretch the timeline, shrink the scope — before getting clever with calibrated questions. The techniques earn most where both sides have something to lose.
Guides that use this skill
Install Negotiation
Free, open-source, and ready in 30 seconds.
npx skills add wondelai/skills/negotiation --global MIT Licensed · Works with Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent & other agentskills.io agents · No account needed
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