Global Leaders in Procurement & Negotiations (PSCMInstitute.com)
Peter Grant was the manager for the British Powerhouse Led Zeppelin. He was an untrained negotiator. In fact, he was a former wrestler and bouncer. And at 6’5” and over 300lbs, he was a behemoth. But where he really excelled was as the group manager for Led Zeppelin. And he changed the music industry forever
The Master Negotiator who Disrupted the Music Industry Forever Read More »
Let me be bold and pull no punches: The procurement function has possibly the least experience with driving influence of any major organizational function in large companies. And you may find this counterintuitive, thinking “but all we do is negotiate huge high stakes deals, more than any other function, so how can this be true?”
Procurement’s Fatal Flaw is Confusing Negotiation with Influence Read More »
Both procurement and sales organizations have been suffering from the same fatal flaw since the invention of currency. And It’s killing us. Our profession is leaving money on the table in every single deal. It starts really early. When you were a kid in the playground, fighting over a toy in the sandbox. Only one
The Fatal Flaw in Negotiations Strategy Read More »
If you are a procurement leader, the onus is on you to make a difference. I’m seeing a lot of CPOs getting better results at traditional activities, but is that what we really want? Just meeting and exceeding cost savings goals is a very 1990’s accomplishment. Here’s a quick questionnaire (Yes = 3 points, Sometimes/Maybe
Procurement Leaders – Take This Performance Test Read More »
I have more and more clients that are struggling with pandemic negotiations with suppliers who hold all the bargaining power. There’s really only 2 things that can be done to address this: Or you can keep hammering the supplier on price, but you are already doing that, and you were doing it before the pandemic
Negotiating with Suppliers that have ALL the Bargaining Power Read More »
There’s an existential crisis in procurement. One we never talk about. The crisis is this: companies invest probably 10,000 times more in the sales function than they do in the procurement function. And procurement is negotiating with sales. If you pay really close attention, your sales negotiation counterparts, when coming from a company of similar size, will
Negotiating with Rainmakers Read More »
Something we focus very little on in negotiations is how to make the other party look and feel successful out of the deal. All of our focus is on how to make ourselves look, feel, and actually be successful in negotiations – and letting our management chain know. But the other party has a management
Writing the Other Party’s Negotiation Victory Speech Read More »
I’ll cut to the chase on this one: The problem is not the legal department. The problem is you and your procurement dept. Let me explain. There’s really a few pieces involved. We’ll knock one of them out now. The legal dept is viewed as overhead. That means they will never be sufficiently funded, and
Here’s Why Your Legal Dept Holds Up Negotiations Read More »
So many procurement professionals, and sales professionals for that matter, make the fatal flaw of making preemptive concessions in negotiations. It just happened to me last weekend. I was at a simple kiosk at a beach boardwalk. I told the proprietor that I wanted to buy 4 of a particular item. I knew the price
Preemptive Concessions in Negotiations Read More »
You’ve all heard of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. It’s a killer in negotiations. But usually in INTERNAL negotiations – with management, end users, and other stakeholders. Before we talk about the procurement implications, let me share a story. There was a cult years ago that said the world would end on a particular day. They
Sunk Costs in Negotiations Read More »
