Procurement Negotiation Training for Buyers and Supply Chain Professionals

Over 1,000,000 procurement professionals, buyers, supply chain professionals, corporate officers, consultants, engineers, sales and marketing people, and other professionals have attended KARRASS's Effective Negotiating® seminars. Our company has set the standard for procurement negotiating training for over 45 years.

Volvo “This is an intense course that provides insight into the world of negotiating. Even the most educated buyer can benefit from this training.”
-Volvo, Buyer

Bosch “If you are a buyer in any industry, you can’t afford not to take this course.”
-Bosch, Senior Buyer

Roche “I have attended other negotiation seminars in the past and KARRASS is by far the best!”
-Roche, Procurement Manager

Procurement Negotiation Strategies

It’s with a strategic supplier, or maybe a sole source. It’s a large project and you need to change the specifications. Your supplier tells you this is really going to impact all of their pricing, but you don’t think it should.

Maybe you are trying to streamline your MRO buys and are having problems getting a couple of your best suppliers to conform to your new process.

A sole source tells you that they are increasing your prices across the board, while you are being asked to get price reductions from all your suppliers. Your department is under pressure to reduce component costs on two of your company’s main products. The only way you can accomplish this is to get your three major suppliers to work with your engineers to find ways to reduce their costs and then pass on those cost reductions to you. It’s going to take a lot of work to make this happen.

You feel anxious. You don’t want to knuckle under. You also don’t want to appear to be playing hardball and antagonize your suppliers. How would a good negotiator handle it?

There are some people who always seem to get what they want and still end up friendly with the other person after an agreement is reached.

How do they do it?

Purchasing Negotiation Strategies

After attending a KARRASS seminar, professionals working in procurement know how to work with suppliers to find ways to lower total costs. They know how to use the supply chain to create value. The result is an immediate bottom-line impact for their organization.

Not Your Typical Contract Negotiation Training

This is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, non-confrontational, and enjoyable two-day seminar. We teach and demonstrate practical skills, strategies, and tactics that you can use immediately. This negotiation training provides procurement and supply chain professionals with practical techniques and the psychological insights needed to help create better Both-Win® agreements.

More than just a single seminar, KARRASS provides extensive follow-up. Each attendee receives a comprehensive package of materials to reinforce the concepts discussed during the seminar, including a seminar workbook, two of Dr. Karrass’s hardcover books, online access to over three hours of streaming audio designed to refresh your memory of the seminar, and the KARRASS Compass – the negotiation coaching and navigational tool.

Purchasing & Supply Chain Negotiation Skills

As traditional purchasing tasks evolve into broader supply management roles, you need to fine-tune your negotiating skills. Now strategic responsibilities require closer interaction with both your internal customers and your suppliers. You are going to be seeking out business opportunities, and helping your organization create value from those opportunities. Your supply chain holds many points of value. Harvesting some of that value for you and your organization requires negotiation training.

Skills you will learn in the KARRASS seminars will help you take a leadership role in your organization. Perhaps as the lead negotiator on a cross-functional team, with you as the negotiations coach. Perhaps you’ve been assigned the responsibility to manage an important strategic supplier, one you cannot afford to lose.

Your supply-chain role provides you interaction with internal customers, external suppliers, and a wealth of industry contacts. These interactions give you information and knowledge no one else in your organization may have. Your ability to use this knowledge in a negotiation can have a profound impact and create real value. Do not waste this opportunity.

“You don’t know what you don’t know about negotiating until you take this course!”
-Verizon Wireless

“Excellent program, well worth the time and money.”
-Owens Corning, Procurement

“KARRASS training is like riding a bicycle with a turbo charger attached to your legs.”
-Borg Warner, Business Manager

“Not only did I learn more than I expected, I learned more than I ever could have imagined.”
-Lubrizol Corp, Purchasing Manager

“An outstanding and interesting program full of useful knowledge.”
- Dow Corning, Supply Mgr

Key Procurement Negotiation Strategies You Will Learn:

Creative, Both-Win® techniques that will cement your relationship with your supplier and provide areas of real value creation.
How to uncover your supplier’s unstated wants—the "Hidden Satisfiers" that will help them find ways to meet your unique needs.
How asking for something in return when you make a concession can lead not only to greater satisfaction from your supplier, but to a better agreement as well.
Proven techniques for handling price increases.
How to make negotiations more fun and less aggravating.
Countermeasures for each of the seller’s tactics.
How to find a Both-Win® compromise alternative in any negotiation.
How people trade off what they think they want for what they really want.

Discover Creative Both-Win® Agreements

Altering the specifications to reduce your supplier’s costs and afford you a lower price.
Utilizing risk-sharing formulas that save money for both parties.
Adjusting reporting, paperwork, and logistical requirements to save time and expenses for both parties.
Realizing efficiencies in quality control and inspections to streamline production and delivery schedules.
Using a better mix of labor, or shared resources, to ensure better quality or on-time deliveries.
Creating ways of sharing assets, expertise, resources, or purchasing power, to help drive down costs of materials, engineering costs, and manufacturing costs for finished products or components.

Who Has Attended Our Negotiation Seminars for Purchasing, Vendors & Suppliers?

Companies such as GE, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Borg Warner, Merck, AT&T, Microsoft, ADP, Bayer, Boeing, Nike, Oracle, Honeywell, Siemens, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Wal-Mart, Time Warner, Intel, and thousands of others have all used KARRASS Effective Negotiating® seminars to help sharpen their negotiating skills.
See our client list »

We’ll examine key negotiating skills that are essential in today’s more complex negotiations with business partners and strategic suppliers. You’ll learn how to protect your own interests while searching for Both-Win® opportunities. We’ll show you how to create innovative and intelligent compromises, or impasse-breakers that still lead the way to better long-term relationships.

“Most likely your competition has taken the KARRASS negotiating course. If you haven’t, you’ll be behind in the game!”
-Mattel Corp, Katie Kenderski, Manager of Global Procurement

Build Your Contract Negotiating Power

How to lend legitimacy to every position taken.
How to develop probing questions to uncover your supplier’s real position and real interests.
Techniques for getting cost and time breakdowns.
Understand where a supplier may cut corners or charge for work not identified in the initial specifications.
When and how to use a team negotiating approach.
How to gain greater insight into the hidden pressures operating on your supplier throughout their organization.
Understanding how cultural differences affect the way people negotiate.

Make Creative Both-Win® Agreements

How to establish a credible counter-position to a supplier’s initial proposal.
Why splitting the difference is not necessary and often favors the supplier.
How to say “NO” in a way that minimizes resentment from your supplier.
How to trade minor concessions for major supplier concessions.
Using the "quid-pro-quo" technique to build a strong agreement.
Identifying easy concessions to gain from the supplier that may have much greater value to your organization.

What are other procurement and supply chain management professionals saying about the KARRASS Effective Negotiating® Seminar?

What Our Attendees Are Saying About Our Procurement Negotiation Training

“The KARRASS class was the single best training class/seminar I have ever attended. The instructor had a refreshing ability to keep the entire class engaged at all times. That is rare in business seminars these days. Every time we did an exercise it taught you what to do differently next time. Thanks.”
-American Express, Kim Cohen, Procurement

“This has been a real eye-opener for me, providing insight and tons of thought-provoking information and skills I can put to use immediately, professionally, and personally.”
-Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cathie Miller, Category Buyer

“Truly an eye opener in terms of how to view a negotiation as a multifaceted structure.”
-ExxonMobil, Christian Petterson, Voyage Coordinator

“Only halfway through the course and I was confident I can use this knowledge to close deals and save millions for the company.”
-Federal Express, Alain Ho, Senior Procurement Manager

“The KARRASS seminar opened my eyes to the seller’s perspective, will never negotiate the same again."
-GE Healthcare, Jennifer Dowling, Sourcing Leader

“You have tried the rest, now learn to negotiate from the best—the KARRASS program enlightens and allows you to have a fresh view of negotiating.”
-Halliburton, Dave Henson, Principal Procurement Professional

“This program was one of the best presented programs I’ve ever taken. It will clearly assist me with better planning for negotiation.”
-Hewlett Packard, Frederick Daigle, Procurement Manager

“KARRASS's Effective Negotiating should be required for all levels of Home Depot. There would be an immediate return on the investment.”
-Home Depot, Mike Todd, Real Estate Procurement

“This is the best course I have ever had in all of my training at Honda. The instructor was excellent and very easy to learn from. I think this program is awesome. It will help me in my negotiations skills and will help me understand the other party’s pressures and limits.”
-Honda of America, Alan Jenkins, Purchasing

“Anyone who deals with people must negotiate, both on a professional and personal level. Learning effective negotiation from KARRASS puts me at an advantage professionally.”
-IBM Global Business Services, Dennis Malinis, Senior Consultant

“This class has taught me to be comfortable with challenging suppliers as well as seeing outside my own perspectives to give me more of an edge to ask questions to make people really defend or back off positions.”
-Intel Corporation, Carolyne Mason, Commodity Specialist

“We have the opportunity to attend many courses/seminars. Because of the number of seminars we attend, my expectations are very high. I feel that this was finally a seminar that provided relevant content that I can use immediately. Thanks.”
-Microsoft, Carly Nelson, Deluxe Contract Manager

“I always thought of myself as a good negotiator especially after having lived and worked throughout the world for many years in many different cultures. However, this class has definitely increased my skills and provided insights into the process that I’d never thought about before.”
-Sony, Gayle Greenlee, Buyer

“This program is very useful both in business and at home. Material is very practical and can be used in every day operations. Very applicable to all types of negotiations.”
-Wal-Mart, Brad Bryant, Regional Manager