Why Price Increases Are a Leadership Issue, Not Just a Sourcing Issue Most organizations treat a supplier’s price increase notice as a tactical fire drill. Procurement gets an email, Finance demands a quick fix, and the business wants “same price, same service.” That’s how costs creep in quietly. Procurement leadership...
Why a Negotiation Team Beats Going Solo When people negotiate alone, they often skip planning and walk in with a “let’s see what happens” mindset. Teams make that harder to do. Even a two-person negotiating team naturally creates accountability: someone has to define the goal, anticipate the other side’s...
What “Difficult Supplier” Usually Means Procurement teams often label a supplier as difficult when the real problem is one of these: Power Imbalance A supplier has capacity, IP, a sole-source position, or switching costs that make “no” feel expensive. When leverage is uneven, suppliers can become rigid, slow, or dismissive. Misaligned Incentives Your...
Why We’re Really Bargaining for Satisfaction What we bargain for in negotiation is not money, goods, or services—it’s what those things represent to us. Satisfaction is what makes an agreement feel like progress rather than compromise. It is also what makes people follow through after the handshake. That’s why negotiators...
Why This Post Matters After MLK Jr. Day With Martin Luther King Jr. Day recently observed in the United States, it’s a good moment to revisit what King actually wrote about negotiation—not as a feel-good concept, but as a structured sequence of steps. In business and in life, many people...
Why Revisit Kennedy on Negotiation Now? Each January, the anniversary of Kennedy’s inauguration prompts people to revisit John F. Kennedy quotes—and many find themselves drawn to his line about negotiation. It’s not a sentimental quote. It’s a standard for how to approach high-stakes discussions when the other side is...
The hidden truth of enterprise selling: negotiation doesn’t end at close If you sell into mid-market or enterprise accounts, the contract is not the finish line. It’s a starting gun. After signature, customers renegotiate in quieter ways—through implementation requests, service expectations, internal politics, and procurement process. What looks like “account...
Why enterprise agreement negotiations feel different In a typical mid-market deal, the buyer’s “yes” is often personal: one or two stakeholders decide, and the contract is mostly paperwork. In complex B2B deals, “yes” is organizational. The buyer must align multiple teams—finance, security, legal, operations, and sometimes executive leadership—before they...
Why rep-level negotiation advice fails sales leaders Most sales negotiation content focuses on rep basics—objection handling scripts, “always ask for the order,” or quick responses to “What’s your best price?” Helpful, but incomplete for leaders. Sales leaders face different problems. You’re navigating multi-stakeholder committees, pricing pressure that spills into renewals...
The Importance of Preparing Your BATNA In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve—you get what you negotiate. And the key to negotiating with confidence and power often comes down to one thing: preparation. At the heart of that preparation is your BATNA—your Best Alternative to...
Why Negotiation Exercises Matter Negotiation cannot be mastered by reading about tactics or observing others. Like any performance skill, it requires deliberate, repeated practice in realistic situations. Negotiation skills exercises replicate the pressures of deal-making—scarcity of resources, time constraints, and the give-and-take of concessions. These scenarios allow professionals to...
The Importance of Negotiation in Conflict Resolution Conflict isn’t just a workplace inevitability—it’s a workplace reality. When people collaborate, especially under pressure, disagreements are bound to arise. But the presence of conflict isn’t the issue; the way it’s addressed is what matters most. Negotiation offers a path through workplace conflict...
The Importance of Negotiation on the Corporate Level Corporate negotiations are at the heart of business success. Whether it’s closing deals, managing vendors, or resolving internal conflicts, negotiation determines outcomes that affect profitability, relationships, and long-term strategy. Yet negotiation is too often approached as an ad-hoc skill, learned through...
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