6. Read the following statements and decide if they are true or false.

1. Business negotiation may be only as simple as choosing a meeting time and place

2. You may ask for something you want directly and you are sure to get it..

3. The exchange includes identifying the goal of the negotiation, brainstorming multiple solutions and determining what the main negotiation tactic may be.

4. After asking an open-ended question, stand up and ask the opposite question.

5. Some cultures expect a strictly business approach to negotiations

6. Negotiation is best conducted on friendly, personal terms.

7. Answer the following questions.

1. What is business negotiation?

2. What can the gesture indicate, if someone suddenly crosses his arms across his chest during the discussion?

3. Communication in a negotiation will be smoother and more effective when you request something that is within the reach of your negotiating partner, won`t it?

4. What must you do to make your current negotiation be successful?

5. What is an important element of international business negotiations?

6. How does business negotiation look like at the end of the day?

8. You will learn 10 essential steps of preparing for a negotiation, plus 7 strategies on which to base a negotiation

1. How to prevent the disasters common to team negotiations

2. The unique things to consider in international negotiations

3. When negotiating by email is smart and when it is the most foolish thing a procurement professional can do

4. How to persuade a sole source supplier

5. The Negotiation Secret Suppliers Don't Want You To Know

6. The persuasive concept that great marketers and salespeople use, but procurement professionals don't use often enough

7. The 1 negotiation technique that is difficult for even the best sales negotiators to overcome

8. Exactly what to say in 18 common negotiation situations

9. 4 common supplier tactics and how to neutralize them 

10. 7 mistakes most procurement professionals don't realize that they make and how to avoid them

11. How to close a negotiation with big results using respectful pressure

12. 6 ways to continually improve your negotiating abilities

9. Imagine, you are going to conduct a business negotiation with the chief of landscaping in connection with purchasing of necessary equipment for street planting. Create an outline of the main points, you are going to discuss.

10. Study the following information and learn useful phrases for success in your negotiations.

You might find yourself in a negotiation situation if you have to ask for a pay rise or promotion, or to get the best possible deal from your suppliers. The ideal outcome is when you give the other party what they want, and they can also give you what you want. But sometimes, one person has to compromise and will probably try to negotiate something in return. The important thing is that both parties feel happy with the final result: a "win-win" situation.

Although some negotiations are more "important" than others, there are some useful phrases you can use at different stages of the negotiation to make your position clear and to make sure that the other party agrees with you.

Preparation for the negotiation

Be prepared! Think about your goals (as well as those of the opposing party) to make sure you are clear about what you want. What can you trade with the other party? Do you have any alternatives that are acceptable to you? If you can also work out possible solutions, then it is easier to find an acceptable outcome. Finally, you should be clear about your "bottom line": the point at which you can offer no more. In rare cases you may even have to be prepared to walk away from the negotiation if you reach a stalemate: a position from which it is impossible to negotiate any more.

Starting and outlining your position

I'd like to begin by saying… I'd like to outline our aims and objectives. There are two main areas that we'd like to concentrate on / discuss.

Agreeing

We agree. This is a fair suggestion. You have a good point. I can't see any problem with that. Provided / As long as you….. we will….

Disagreeing

I'm afraid that's not acceptable to us. I'm afraid we can't agree with you there. Can I just pick you up on a point you made earlier. I understand where you're coming from / your position, but… We're prepared to compromise, but… If you look at it from our point of view,… As we see it… That's not exactly as we see it. Is that your best offer?

Clarifying

Does anything I have suggested / proposed seem unclear to you? I'd like to clarify our position. What do you mean exactly when you say…. Could you clarify your last point for me?

Summarising

Can we summarise what we've agreed so far? Let's look at the points we agree on. So the next step is…

Language points

During a negotiation, you're likely to hear "if" sentences, as the negotiation moves from the stage of exploring issues to the stage of making a deal.

If you increased the order size, we could / would reduce the price. (2nd conditional – exploring the issue) So, we'll reduce the price by 5% if you increase the order by 5%. (1st conditional – making a deal)

You might also hear "unless" (=if not), "as long as" and "provided (that)" instead of if:

As long as you increase your order, we can give you a greater discount. Unless you increase your order, we won't be able to give you a bigger discount. Provided you increase your order, we can give you a bigger discount.

11. Read the following negotiation between a television manufacturer and a components company for a 2 year contract for components. Bill is representing the television company and Fleur is representing the component company. Focus on the words/phrases in BOLD and think about their meaning.

Fleur: 'So, we could supply you with 40,000 components per month, for a two-year period at a unit cost of $4.35 per component.'

Bill: 'There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding. You do realise that we want to order nearly a million components. And for that quantity, the price per unit does seem to be very high.'

Fleur: 'We have taken into account the size of the order you require. And we have reduced the unit price markedly from what we normally ask. In terms of unit price, what were you thinking of?'

Bill: 'Well, we were hoping for something around $3.40 per unit. Please bear in mind that we want to order nearly a million components, not a thousand.'

Fleur: '$3.40 per unit. I am afraid that is out of the question. If we sold it to you at that price, we would be making loss on every unit sold.'

Bill: 'Well, we have received a quote from one of your competitors at $3.53 per unit.'

Fleur: 'I am afraid that we can't match that. But If I were you, I would be asking myself how can they sell the components at such a low price? I would say that they are sacrificing the quality of the component for price. But there may be some room for manoeuvre. If you were to increase your order to 50,000 components per months, then we could lower the unit cost to $4.15.'

Bill: 'For 50,000 units per month we wouldn't expect to pay more than $3.85 per unit. I would say that this price is the going rate for this quantity.'

Fleur: 'I don't think that we could go that far. Under $4 per unit. It's not enough.'

Bill: 'Well, could you meet us halfway? At $4 per unit?'

Fleur: 'If that's $4 per unit, 50,000 per month for 2 years. I think we can do that.'