How Purchasing Agents & Supply Chain Managers Can Prepare for a Successful Negotiation

Summary

It turns out that most negotiations are over even before they begin. The purchasing team that has spent the most time planning for the negotiation, doing their homework, and collecting the data that they'll need is the one that's going to walk away from the table with the best deal. Wouldn't you want that team to be your team?

What You'll Find Inside:

• THE 7 DEADLY SINS OF PREPARING TO NEGOTIATE


• DEALS THAT MAKE MONEY: HOW TO PLAN YOUR CONCESSIONS


• MAKE MORE SALES: UNDERSTANDING BUYER POWER & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT


• SINGLE VS TEAM NEGOTIATION: WHICH IS BETTER?

Planning is what happens before a supply chain manager sits down at the negotiating table. There are no negotiating tactics or tricks at play here. It's just a matter of you doing your homework. At the same time you hope that the other side is NOT doing their homework so that you'll show up at the negotiation more prepared then they are.

Just committing to doing the planning that your next negotiation is going to require is not enough, you also have to know just exactly how to go about doing it. That's what this book is going to teach you. Every negotiation that a purchasing agent or supply chain manager engages in is different and so the planning that you'll have to do for every negotiation will be different also.

The planning that is required for a successful negotiation for the person that you are responsible for takes on many different forms. These can include planning where and when the negotiations will be held, what concessions you'll be willing to make to the other side, and understanding who has what power in the negotiations.

The end result of doing the planning that a negotiation requires is that when you sit down at the negotiating table, you'll have a sense of being prepared. You'll know what you need to know about the other side of the table, what their goals are, what their constraints are, and what they hope to be able to get out of the negotiations. This is exactly the type of knowledge that every a purchasing agent or supply chain manager is going to need in order to be able to reach the type of deal that will allow you to walk away from the table with a sense of accomplishment.