Asking your suppliers for innovation—or transformation—is a tall order and few suppliers accept the challenge. I think I know why. Innovation transforms something, whether a process or a machine. It is more than an incremental improvement—saving “fingers and toes”...
A stakeholder said in front of the supplier during negotiations, “What the hell does ‘G.S.’ (V.P. of Sourcing) have to do with my deal!?” My coaching client and I had to regain control of the conversation immediately. In this article I’ll explain what we did and ask...
When is the last time that you sat down to think about your goals for an upcoming negotiation? If you are like many others, you have not considered this question beyond thinking about price. There is much more to setting negotiation goals than hitting a certain price...
Here are some of my negotiation pet peeves! Open display of animosity between negotiators Lack of understanding of what the other side needs Incomplete and/or wrong data Poor follow up on questions, solutions or methods Business as usual responses to questions Hide...
It’s time for a new approach and mindset for contract negotiations—time to leave the me-first, I-win-you-lose strategy and replace it with a highly collaborative approach when structuring partnerships. What if the agreement you negotiated was more than just a...