Most buyers would define negotiation as that time when you are sitting across the table working through the terms and conditions of a buy. If you are waiting until that time, it’s too late. Let’s say that this is a typical buying cycle: you understand the buying criteria, do some data collection, you implement your buying process, and then the negotiation takes place… or does it?

Thought I'd share with you this information about an upcoming, complimentary webinar from IACCM about something near and dear to our hearts, the business value conversation.  Take a look below at the webinar description from the IACCM website:

Think! Inc. provides research-based negotiation training for buyers. We help Procurement professionals become more successful negotiators. All the countermeasures, tactics, behaviors, tips, tricks and gimmicks typically taught by negotiation "training" or other "experts" may be helpful hints, but they are not a blueprint for successful negotiating. In fact, they have few, if any, long-term, positive effects on the negotiating skills of an individual or the negotiating competency of an organization. A company training its Procurement professionals in such a traditional soft skills approach to negotiation cannot expect much improvement in negotiation effectiveness.

Supply Managers agree the single source negotiation often results in the Supply Manager feeling less than powerful, and/or an opportunity focused Supplier makes them feel like they have been taken advantage of.  One-sided negotiations seemingly expedite even the best Supply Managers to thinking they are in a very difficult to win situation.  Indeed this very line of thought creates a very powerful fear, and one of the most persistent myths in negotiations, the assumption of a fixed pie negotiation.

Since the 1980's industrial buying has gone from getting three quotes and executing a three-part carbon paper Purchase Order typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter, to a sophisticated electronic environment where information is available at the buyer's computer command.  With the introduction of ERP systems buyers can now assemble historical buy information, supplier history and performance, develop RFPs, RFQs and enable reverse auctions.  Electronically, buyers can exchange offers with suppliers and transmit Purchase Orders via EDI.  Procurement is now taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels as part of Supply Chain Management programs at universities around the world.  Students emerging from graduate programs are more strategic thinkers and have a much broader understanding of business as ecosystems.

Determining the answer to this question is important because it affects how both sides think of the negotiation and, as a result, how they behave.  Those who think they have more power in the negotiation tend to overestimate the value of their offer.  As a result, they're more likely to play hardball in the negotiation and are less willing to consider making trades.  And when either side is unwilling to make trades, it makes creating value difficult for both sides and increases the likelihood of impasse.  On the other hand, those who think they have less power are likely to underestimate the value of their offer, are likely to roll over too easily, and, in the process, unnecessarily give up value to the other side.

A pervasive belief about negotiation is that you can’t plan for it and can’t control it because nothing is predictable; negotiation is all reaction and no amount of proactive preparation will matter. The essence of this problem was poignantly captured in an offhand comment made by the editor of

Many of the posts on the B2B Street Fighting blog are focused on the selling side of business negotiation.  And reading through them, supply side managers may get a false sense of security.  Just as your sales counterparts are improving their competency around negotiating, buyers can't sit back and be satisfied with relying on their past experiences.  Much has changed, and time is even more precious than ever.

Here are three items focusing on the buyer side of negotiation.

Supply Managers agree the single source negotiation often results in the Supply Manager feeling less than powerful, and/or an opportunity focused Supplier makes them feel like they have been taken advantage of.  One-sided negotiations seemingly expedite even the best Supply Managers to thinking they are in a very difficult to win situation.  Indeed this very line of thought creates a very powerful fear, and one of the most persistent myths in negotiations, the assumption of a fixed pie negotiation.