Increase profits, Close more sales and build those revenue streams – Here’s some Oscar performing tips from NRI (Negotiation Resource International) which will increase your power in any sales negotiation. NRI will introduce you to the structure and skills required to negotiate successful deals with any Buying Professional.

We all strive for better outcomes when negotiating, so what puts the seller ahead of the buyer in terms of reaching their ideal outcome?

The most important elements of a successful negotiation are the people involved and the rapport they build with each other – it’s easier to give to, and build a relationship with, someone you like.  It’s critical for your negotiating success to demonstrate the following behaviours:

*          warm with the people – approachable, friendly and attentive

*          tough on the business – assertive, focused and persistent

10 Golden Rules for Warm/Tough Negotiations

1.  The master skill is listening

-       Listen out for when the buyer is conditioning you.  If you hear something often enough you will begin to believe it.   i.e. “Our purpose is to strip costs out across the board and we’re asking all our key suppliers to help us achieve that.  What suggestions do you have to reduce costs?”   Be aware of the conditioning and bring the negotiation back to your agenda

-       Listen out for signals of movement. Pre-cursors before numbers i.e. we are looking to pay “around, about, approximately” £5 per unit.  These are indicators that movement is possible.

2.  Ascertain which style of negotiation you are entering into.  Is it a tactical and therefore competitive negotiation or a strategic and therefore collaborative negotiation?  Match your approach to suit the style

3.  If you are too quick to ask “why?”  you may get a number of very good                                              reasons that could make refusal difficult.  Get your facts in first

4.  KISS (Keep your logical arguments Simple and Straightforward)

5.  Before you threaten, think about the consequences and always threaten at the business not the personal level

6.  Hint at threat.  Use a mirrored or implied threat. Never threaten at a personal level

7.  When you do move, do so slowly and in small steps

8.  Get a return from any concession made and say thank you for any concession given. This takes ownership

9.  Only use compromise as a last resort

10.  Remember 50/50 is not the only compromise

Join the next CP Training negotiating course: Advanced Commercial Negotiating Skills being run in London from 24 – 28 June 2013. 

Note:  NRI is partner within the CP Training Consortium

For many organizations who contract out, our out-source any of their activities, contract success is not achieved when the contract is awarded.  In many respects the contract award stage is the easier element of the process – the real challenge is then how you manage the contract after its award.  Contract management training is therefore an essential investment for all organizations who contract out or outsource.

Contract Management Skills incorporate a wide range of contractual understanding – contract managers need to fully understand the purpose, scope, contract operations and contract objective, but also need to be skilled in contract relationships and project management.  Other elements encompass the Business Ethics and how to measure contractor performance.

It is very clear that millions of US$ are lost to businesses every year directly as a result of poor contract management.  The consequences of issues such as contract over-runs and quality deficiencies can be devastating to the contract budget.

Contract Managers must have the practical skills to be effective in downstream contract management  – practical means management techniques that actually work and are not just about the theory!

CP Training Services have been helping organizations all over the globe to develop best practice contract management through its contract and vendor management training courses.

One of the more popular course is the Practical Contract Management – Getting the Results Course which runs in London.  Our next course is scheduled for 5 – 9 November 2012.

Can you afford not to check this out?

For our full range of contract management courses visit: http://www.cp-training-consortium.co.uk/contracting-and-procurement-training-courses-category-1

Remember,  making contracts work can be a dream if managed correctly, but it doesn’t just happen. So we need to proactively manage the contractor and the contract, whatever the working environment.

http://www.cp-training-consortium.co.uk/

In today’s business environment, an organisation, whether profit making or not for profit, is becoming under ever increasing pressure to improve its operational efficiency.  This is even more critical as a consequence of the current global crunch as companies seek to stay afloat in these turbulent waters, hoping that the application of a range of consolidation strategies will see them through to calmer waters in the future.

Most honest people will admit however, that the future will never be the same -  we don’t know what hazards the turbulence will conjure up only to then nestle just under the surface, ready to tear away at our organisational framework when an opportunity arises.

Most business leaders would concur with a strategy of ongoing internal

evaluation of its business processes in an effort to maximise there efficiencies, generating an improved contribution to the business margin.  We have had a host of business pr

actices that have come and gone – and even come back  – which are considered as good business

practice, Business Process Re-engineering; balanced scorecards, TQM; to name a few.  Many organisations have applied such techniques with a variety of successes, but fundamentally any intelligent manager would endorse the view that there is clearly no single blueprint to success.

The emphasis is clearly established for organisations to adopt the philosophy of continuous process improvement (CPI); and this often includes the practice of continuous personal development (CPD), which extends the philosophy into processes for the improvement of performance of their employees.

Operational Blinkers

For most organisations, the mindset of many managers is continually focused on oiling the wheels of the operation to just keep it going day by day.  Such operational demands are not to be undermined and for many, there is little room in this mindset for anything else, even periodically checking to see if the selection of the oil being used is doing the best job. Such operational blinkers are cultural driven and ingrained in the management and leadership style of the organisation itself.

Whilst this might be a simplification of the reality, all in business would agree that we spend insufficient time taking a step back and reviewing the processes that we run, checking to ensure that not only are they at the peak of efficiency, but probably more importantly, that they are actually making a valuable impact towards achieving the business goals of the organisation. This later point is truly critical in any evaluation of business processes.

Experience shows that in many cases organisations turn the process wheel in the same way that it has always been done, but in reality, the momentum is as a consequence of the past as opposed to building a credible momentum for the business goals of today and the future. It is also apparent that in some cases this historical momentum state is actually disabling the organisation’s intentions for business growth and even survival into the future.

You are a manager?  Prove it!

The principle of CPI and CPD, some would argue, are fundamental responsibilities of any manager.  Such responsibilities embrace not just the capability to articulate in the jargon of these principles, but present a measurable demonstration of actions to improve, with meaningful outcomes. Many executives are now demanding such actions of their managers and are including the evaluation of CPI successes in their performance and appraisal reviews.

In fact, gone are the days when CV’s are just a statement of what jobs a candidate has had – assessments now demand proven data about the outcomes of actions that managers have undertaken when in this roles.  When making a selection for a critical and key role, most modern day thinking executives would prefer a junior manager with relevant and proven role results than a senior manager with a host of experience, but little measurable facts as to the impact he/she had in these roles.

Business process improvement should focus on those process that are critical in the operational undertaking – this means evaluating what really is the function of each department in the organisation in contributing to the business goals and evaluating those processes that realise this contribution.  Hence, in a transport department, the focus should obviously be ensuring the movement of people or goods to be at the right place at the right time and in the right condition – and not so much perhaps about vehicle colour or status image.  In a procurement department, the focus is about sourcing the most fit for purpose goods or materials with proven reliability at the best price to be at the right place at the right time.  Are all processes truly contributing to this?

So often organisations have invested heavily in complex processes that have historically served them well but now prove to be unwieldy and extravagant in the utilisation of depleting resources, but fundamentally not always generating outcomes that the current day market now demands.

Change is uncomfortable, but tolerable if managed right

It is also the painful truth that many managers do recognise the need to improve their processes but are extremely anxious about both the consequences of implement the change and their personal vulnerability in the process of change.

Managers are right to recognise the implications of making changes – change management requires knowledge and expertise in its own right.  Such expertise can be taught and with time, managers can become highly competent in implementing successful change – highly credible statistics for one’s CV!

A good development training programme can furnish the manager with the understanding and techniques in process improvement, and a strategy for implementation. But, the motivation for undertaking this improvement focus must come from the managers themselves.  The return on the investment of sending managers on a training event comes solely from their actions when they return to their workplace.  Maybe training certificates should in the future only be awarded when the action plans that are always complied at the end of the programme, are completed and measured.

So the case for developing a mindset of Continual Process Improvement is clearly proven, but is this not the role of ‘management’ anyway?  Should employers not reasonably expect a return on their investment in the salaries of their managers?

Should not a part of this return relate to improvements?

Perhaps managers need to prepare to stand up and be counted!

http://www.cp-training-consortium.co.uk/identifying-and-implementing-business-process-improvements-course-471