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Strategic Negotiations: Building Value Beyond the Bottom Line
Now that you’ve used data to find market rates to negotiate great pricing and you’ve changed the rules to create win-win scenarios with suppliers, where else can you find value in a negotiation? In non-price parameters. As supply chain or procurement professionals,...
Unlocking Value: Change the Negotiation Rules to Achieve Win-Win Outcomes
In negotiations, achieving a win-win often involves rule adjustments, not to deceive the other party but to enhance value for both sides. Let’s explore a couple of strategies that can transform the negotiation landscape. Quantity Discounts and Bundling: Boosting value...
Negotiate Smarter, Not Harder: A Deep Dive into Data-Powered Procurement Methods
The last time I searched for an image depicting negotiation, all I found were variations of two shaking hands – unmistakably two white men in suits. This time, as you can see, there were more diverse options. In today’s business landscape, negotiations rarely play out...
Strategic Scoping: Maximizing Value and Minimizing Risk in Procurement
One of the often overlooked benefits of an e-Auction program is the improvement in scopes of work. This is because when any qualified supplier who can provide the scope of work can participate in the e-Auction, suddenly the answer “my incumbent knows what we need”...
Rethinking Value: e-Auctions as Catalysts for Remarkable Lead Time Reductions
As I was on a call with a supply chain leader last week, they brought up all the common objections to e-Auctions: Too impersonal. Too transactional. Don’t like them. So I asked what they were struggling with. “Lead times are still horrible on our key commodities” was...
Busting six e-Auction Myths
E-Auctions–specifically reverse English auctions–have a bad reputation. They had a rise and fall in the early 2000s, and have now largely settled into small impact materials bids or logistic shipping lanes. Why have they gained this reputation and been relegated to...
What is an e-Auction?
This very reasonable question almost always comes first when I mention e-Auctions. My first answer is usually that it’s like eBay backwards. An e-Auction, specifically here a reverse English auction, is an online negotiation tool where multiple suppliers bid to sell a...