In October, I was ortunate enough to attend the external course "Procurement Negotiation Strategy and Practice". At the beginning of the course, the teacher mentioned that learning from time to time means practicing it often after learning. Because my work is closely related to negotiation, I was attending the training this time, hoping to put what I have learned in the course into practice at work.

The following are some of the negotiation skills mentioned in the course:

(1)  Be fully prepared before negotiation: if you know yourself, you will win every battle.

The most important step in successful negotiation is to be fully prepared first. Before the negotiation, we should collect enough information, including but not limited to the market situation, price composition, demand status and cooperation records of both parties, and we should also prepare our own price bottom line, target, upper limit and even alternatives.

(2)  Don't show your approval to the supplier before the contract: Before signing the

transaction starts, the expected value of the other party will determine the final transaction conditions, so experienced buyers will not show their inner views excessively no matter how good the goods and prices are. Never forget: in every minute of the negotiation, you should always be skeptical, don't show your interest in cooperating with the other party, and make the supplier feel dispensable in your heart, so that it is easier to obtain favorable trading conditions.

(3)  Negotiate only with those who have the right to decide: there are all kinds of people

to face in the negotiation, and their position level and decision authority may be different. In order to avoid wasting time and revealing the company's position to people who have no right to decide, it is necessary to cut off the other party's retreat at the beginning of the negotiation, for example, "If we negotiate, can your decision represent your company?"

(4)  Never accept the other party's initial conditions immediately: at the beginning of the

negotiation, it is necessary to quickly compress the other party's expected goals and make the opening layout. Let the other party put forward their initial conditions first, and then deny him: "Your conditions are not good enough, which is different from our expectations." However, if the conditions given by the other party are really tempting, we also need to keep calm, not show excitement and satisfaction, and even ask the "vague superior".

(5)  Non-equivalent exchange: When the negotiations between the two sides are

deadlocked, we may make concessions to accept each other's demands, but we must make concessions conditionally. For example, "we can pay 90% of the payment in advance, but at the same time we need you to complete the delivery before the 10th". While making concessions, we should put forward our conditions in time and not make unconditional concessions, which not only makes concessions more valuable, but also helps us avoid a lot of troubles (opponents will not ask us to make concessions endlessly).

(6)  Decreasing concession range: When you have to make concessions, you should pay

attention to the fact that you can't give the bottom line at one time, and you should make concessions with decreasing range for many times. To give a simple example, when buying household appliances, the merchant bids 10,000rmb, then makes concessions to 9,000rmb, then 8,500rmb, and then 8,200rmb. You will find that the other party has made concessions many times, and the range is decreasing. This makes it more and more difficult for the other party to make concessions, and it is getting closer to the bottom line. On the contrary, if the concession range is increasing, it is easy to feel that concessions are getting easier and easier, and it will be taken for granted that the other party has more room for concessions.

(7)  Black-and-white face strategy: As a strong faction, the "black face" will not hesitate

to put forward favorable conditions, even some harsh conditions, at the beginning of the negotiations. On the contrary, the "white face" is calm and takes a wait-and-see attitude. When the negotiations are in a tense atmosphere, they will come forward to ease the situation, while discouraging their peers, while explicitly pointing out that this "uncontrollable" situation is mainly the result of the other side's provocation. Finally, they list the effects of various negotiation failures on both sides, making both sides make concessions and reach cooperation.

Life is full of negotiation. "If you want to do a good job, you must sharpen your tools first." Negotiation skills are the sharp weapon for negotiators. I hope everyone can learn and improve their negotiation skills to deal with all kinds of negotiations in life.