Certified Professional Negotiator
CPN — negotiate more value, protect relationships, and close with confidence
Key facts
- Level: Associate
- Field: Soft Skills
- Certification price: $189 (one-time payment)
- Online course: Professional Negotiation — Illustrated Study Guide — $195
- Course + exam bundle: $384
- Exam: 40 multiple-choice questions · 75 minutes · passing score 70% · up to 3 attempts
- Estimated study time: about 24 hours
- Validity: 36 months
- Certification language: English
About the Certified Professional Negotiator certification
The Certified Professional Negotiator (CPN) turns negotiation from a nerve-racking contest into a disciplined, repeatable skill. Built on the Harvard principled-negotiation method of Fisher and Ury and on modern research into leverage and psychology, it teaches you to prepare like a professional and perform under pressure. You will learn the two faces of every deal — distributive bargaining that claims value and integrative bargaining that creates it — and how to hold both at once without falling into the negotiator's dilemma. You will master the four principles of principled negotiation: separate the people from the problem, focus on interests rather than positions, invent options for mutual gain, and insist on objective criteria. You will quantify your leverage with the tools that decide most deals: your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), your reservation and target points, and the ZOPA (zone of possible agreement), all worked through with numbers. You will run the full process — prepare, open, explore, bargain and concede, close — recognise and counter hardball tactics ethically, and use framing, active listening, questioning and emotional control to shift outcomes. The course closes with complex, multiparty, cross-cultural and email negotiations, a serious treatment of ethics, and a full guided negotiation simulation with a professional preparation sheet. It is the associate-level cornerstone of the Soft Skills path.
Course outline
The Professional Negotiation — Illustrated Study Guide course covers:
- Negotiation Foundations — Distributive (claiming value) versus integrative (creating value) negotiation; positions versus interests; and the negotiator's dilemma that runs… (2 lessons)
- Principled Negotiation (the Harvard Method) — The four principles of Fisher and Ury: separate the people from the problem; focus on interests, not positions; invent options for mutual gain; and… (2 lessons)
- Preparation and Leverage — BATNA, reservation and target points, the ZOPA (zone of possible agreement) and anchoring — the quantitative core of negotiation, worked through… (2 lessons)
- The Negotiation Process and Tactics — The five phases from preparation to close, managing concessions, and how to recognise and counter common hardball tactics ethically. (2 lessons)
- Communication and Psychology — Framing, active listening and questioning; managing emotions; the cognitive biases that distort negotiation; and the principles of ethical persuasion. (2 lessons)
- Complex Negotiations and the Simulation Lab — Multiparty and team negotiations, cross-cultural negotiation, negotiating by email, and ethics — closing with a full guided negotiation simulation… (2 lessons)
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Certified Professional Negotiator certificate verifiable?
- Yes. Every certificate issued by BC Skills Academy carries a unique credential ID that anyone can check on the public verification page.
- How is the Certified Professional Negotiator exam structured?
- It is a timed, randomized multiple-choice exam of 40 questions in 75 minutes, graded instantly; you need 70% to pass.
- Can I get a refund?
- Full refund within 7 days of purchase if you have not started the exam. Once the exam has been started or completed, the purchase is no longer refundable.