Purchasing and Negotiation Training

Robert Menard, Certified Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant

Editor’s note: this is Part I of a 5 part series on the importance of verbal communication in negotiations.  Part I deals with open mind assumptions.  Part II with questioning techniques.  Part III deals with word usage while Part IV addresses common statements while Part 5 wraps up the lose ends.

Listening and speaking are the literal nuts and bolts of negotiation but they are accompanied by the more mysterious figurative elements of body language and an open mind.  Mastery of both the figurative and the literal is essential to negotiate effectively.  Other posts in this blog have treated the open mind concept.  For those fascinated by body language, a highly visual and arcane study, please refer to this online course.The open mind brings a bonanza of techniques that are beyond the reach of our closed minded brethren.     

 1    Dumbness 

Without any doubt, dumbness is every negotiator’s best friend.  It represents the most beneficial effect of having an open mind.  Dumbness does not mean abject, knuckle dragging ignorance, but the surrender of one’s prejudices, beliefs and ego.  As an entertaining ice breaker in negotiation training, I often ask “Is anyone here as smart as they look?”  Suspecting a joke, an occasional brave soul will raise his or her hand, to which I remark that “You couldn’t be – you’d have to be twins!”  We are not as smart as we look.  As Clarence Darrow is said to have once noted, “I don’t pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.”      

 2    Never agree nor disagree with explanations or opening positions 

This caveat is especially true of statements of opening position.  Openers are notoriously overstated (High Initial Demands or HID ), sometimes intended to inflame, and sometimes as a counter wrought of over estimated assessments of the other side’s position.  It is far better to understand the motivation rather than to argue with the position, at least at first.  When you are presented with a seemingly outrageous position, think to yourself, “What an interesting attempt.”  You may well be ready to laugh or walk out in a huff, but that would not exhibit much open mindedness. 

Suppose that you are presented with this position statement.  “You know as well as I do that our product is making you a ton of money and costing us a fortune  We have to get double what you are paying now.”  Our concern should be for the motivation, not the position.  Is this supplier losing money?  Are we at fault, or did this supplier willingly low ball us for internal purposes?  Were they trying to trap us on the boat and then raise the fare?  

online training in purchasing, negotiation, and sales

First, we know from the dumbness technique that we don’t even know for sure what we think we know, so how does this other guy know that he knows what we know as well as he does?  Secondly, double the price sure sounds like a lot, but they just mentioned price and cost problems, so let’s make them prove their case before we do anything.  This leads to the next technique.   

 3    “Tell me about it.”

The ‘never agree nor disagree technique above has just presented you with a Broadway opening for sweeping questions about the supplier’s cost and price structure.  The course of any negotiation is virtually unpredictable and thus the stress we place on planning.  In this instance, seize the opportunity to inquire, with our sophisticated questioning techniques, about the Cost Analysis  and Price Analysis angles.  In fact, a flatly stated, matter of course response should be. “Tell me about it.”  We should use this sentence as often as a plumber uses a wrench.