You have worked with the customer for 6 months. You've designed a proposal, talked to the right people. Everyone likes everything. No one has said anything about the price you included in the proposal.
You feel confident. You have started planning the implementation. Then a person on the customer side says "now you just need to go through our purchasing department". You stop and think about how much you now need to give away!
Many may recognize the above situation. You think you are
hEmma with the sale as the discussion moved on to planning the introduction.
That's when it comes. You have to go to Purchasing to defend your plan, but above all the commercial terms.
The problem with the situation is that purchases come in late in the buying process and are sometimes not interested in the arrangement except for the part that deals with price.
What usually happens is that purchasing wants to "negotiate" the price. If a seller is not attentive, you will be in a price negotiation within 1 minute. And once there, it's hard to get out.
The skilled negotiators play the long-term and strategic game. Instead of ending up in a haggling session, you start negotiating.
That is, you want to sell first where you build the value. The buyer needs to understand this and be convinced that your solution matches the needs.
You also need to build a relationship with your counterpart to avoid short-term action. It is difficult but important to build values/negotiable areas with the Buyer. These enable you to negotiate instead of just haggling over the commercial terms.
Good luck with the negotiations
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