Our Mission
Empowering negotiators to maximise their deals through the advancement of behavioural and negotiation sciences
Our Story
Our founder and Chief Negotiator Alex Adamo, a negotiator and serial entrepreneur, has always had a mission: bridging the gap between business and behavioural sciences;
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After helping commercialise some of his startups, achieving an MSc in Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology at UCL to learn hard behavioural sciences from humans and primates alike, negotiating with CEOs of the largest banks in the world as a strategy consultant and learning how to up-skill negotiators from world-class training companies, Alex discovered that there were little to no negotiation consultancies in the world that offered end-to-end negotiation support from providing macro-strategic oversight on 6-12 months negotiation plans to the minutest levels of micro-behaviours through each negotiation event i.e. providing scientific and actionable answers to questions such as "why are we making a certain micro-facial expressions while putting our proposal on the table or after we receive theirs?", "why are we being more verbose than we need to be when sending a negotiation email to our counter-party, is it because we are afraid of losing the deal? If so, is this actually what we want to communicate to our counter-party?", "what impression will I communicate to my opponent if I immediately call them back after their angry email, and I employ a trembling, startling voice? Will they know I am really eager to close the deal, will my amygdala take control of my behaviours, will they, therefore, be tougher and firmer with me, making it more difficult to maximise my deal?".
Often the problem is that most negotiators are not even aware of the importance of asking themselves such questions, let alone the ability to employ behavioural on-message execution. It was clear that people, including C-Level executives, do not pay conscious attention to such behaviours and just go into the negotiation room to use their experience to close the deal - This is what we call "finger-crossing". When such negotiators manage €150m+ deals, the consequences of a millisecond hesitation detectable in one's tone of voice, an ill prepared deal structure, a micro-facial expression of surprise lasting for less than a fifth of a second, one's thumb stroking the back of their own hand, can and will be financially disastrous as it will send signals which our interlocutor will consciously or subconsciously receive and act upon. To add injury to insult, after reaching a deal, the negotiator will usually not even be aware of having left a few millions on the table and will go away and celebrate having closed another large deal.
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The mission for The Commercialiser was clear: bringing the finest level of behavioural insights and negotiation strategy to a select number of large corporates would immediately add measurable EBIT to such companies. The Commercialiser exists to help you identify the millions that are at risks of being left on the table and to provide strategic and behavioural support to help you maximise each deal you make.
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We use a small number of experienced negotiators to support our clients. Our negotiators are either full-time negotiators or CEOs and Commercial Directors of large enterprises who support ad-hoc negotiation engagements.
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Our negotiators conduct real negotiations on a daily basis and put their own money and careers at stake in each negotiation they lead. While we are ever-learning students of negotiation, we are not full-time armchair theorists.
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High-stake negotiations require rigorous emotional management and flawless pre-frontal cortex operational capability under tough, high-pressure circumstances - this skill cannot be learnt in a classroom while teaching MBA students or conducting white paper research about negotiation theory.
Practice, not theory
Values and
Culture at
The Commercialiser
Honesty and loyalty are our key drivers as people, colleagues and friends at The Commercialiser. We refuse to collaborate with companies which use underhand or illegal commercial tactics. We advocate negotiation techniques that put our clients firmly in control and enable them to reach their ambitious commercial objectives while employing fairness and integrity in the process.
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While we know how to employ executive authority in the boardroom, we also like to be light-hearted when possible, enjoy a bit of banter with colleagues and clients alike, and bring passion and joy into our engagements every day.
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We give the utmost respect and professionalism to our clients and we expect the same in return.
Boutique consultancy means small and tailored, rather than producing one-size-fits-all solutions, we personalise every engagement to our clients' needs strategic objectives so that we can maximise the ROI of your investment.
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We have a small team of people as negotiators, some of us with more than 30 years of experience on the job, as well as colleagues who help our operations and client experience. We are committed to retaining our small, boutique consultancy structure and, rather than scaling in size we are relentlessly committed to growing exponentially in negotiation impact. As we continue to support the world's largest businesses in their negotiations, we are proud of the impact we are making on our clients bottom line and, equally, on their people's ability to embrace discomfort and take control of their negotiations. ​
Boutique means tailored
Preferential Fees for Sustainability-First Companies and those who intend to preserve the planet
While it is our mission to deliver tangible EBIT impact for the world's biggest brands and most loved companies, we believe there is an even higher mission we have the responsibility to contribute towards: helping the people of the world in their quest to create a sustainable ecosystem. Based on our research, we identified social entrepreneurs and sustainable companies as being often led and composed by people with a high level of agreeableness, transparency, and kindness-first approach. Regrettably, these personality traits are often in sharp contrast with shrewd-minded, profit-driven, power-exerting corporates and governments, whom they need to negotiate against to make their vision happen. We are committed to giving sustainable companies the negotiation skills, knowledge and expertise to assertively drive their negotiations while fully retaining and never compromising on any of their values and personality traits.
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If you are an entrepreneur involved in sustainability and environmental causes or are an executive in sustainability-first companies, we want to hear from you and see how we may support you at preferential rates.
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