negotiation skills training: dealing with professional buyers

One of the major changes taking place in the business negotiation environment is the increasing number of professional buyers in the marketplace. This new type of buyer not only sees negotiation, like sales, as a process but, perhaps even more important for our purposes, is capable of performing in-depth analyses of your solution versus your competitor's to an extent that you probably haven't even begun to imagine.  What this means is that many buyers are using what is effectvely a new purchasing model, on that enables them to quantify value to a much greater extent than the vast majority of salespeople. 

If may seem unlikely that professional buyers would be interested in being able to "create joint value and divide it given concerns for fairness in the ongoing relationship." The fact is, though, they are, and for one very good reason.  They know that in the vast majority of business-to-business deals, the long-term health of both buyer and seller comes not from negotiating over shrinking margins but, rather, from building long-term, profitable business relationships.  So even though professional buyers can certainly be very tough negotiators, they understand that both you and they will be better off if you can come to an agreement in which both sides are satisfied.