This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Leigh Thompson is an MBA professor and author of "Negotiating the Sweet Spot: The Art of Leaving Nothing on the Table." If companies want their people to be skilled negotiators with customers, they need to be ready for it to be turned back around on them. Take negotiations out of the closet and put aside the win-lose mentality of negotiations. I recently led negotiation training for new sales managers in a large global organization. The focus was on the sales-customer relationship, but very quickly, the Q&A session turned to salary negotiations and the smart group quickly realized that all of their negotiation skills could be used in their own salary negotiations.