I love the point about negotiation director. Spot on!

As the main author, I’d like to thank you for sharing our negotiation research report.

I understand your scepticism about ‘impartial’ research by training vendors. We tried to be as objective as possible – hence the link with IACCM (by the way – a fantastic organisation if you’re involved in contracting or commercial management). http://www.iaccm.com/

However, we’re not suggesting organisations simply invest in more negotiation-training programmes. The required change is more fundamental than up-skilling sales professionals.

Success in a complex, multi-million dollar negotiation does not come from soft skills alone. It’s the corporate negotiation processes and systems that make the difference.

Whilst the net income of the Global 2000 declined by 30.9%, the companies that that have ‘world class’ negotiation capabilities posted an average net income increase of 42.5%. The detail of what they do differently is in our report.

As you suggest, the best thing any company can do is to integrate a formalised negotiation process within the sales methodology. One of the big oil ‘Super Majors’ saved $37 million on a single deal after making this change. Of course, as you rightly point out, you need a sales process before you can do this!

Perhaps the problem in driving this change is that nobody ‘owns’ the negotiation function. Sales leaders can implement the selling methodology, procurement directors love their 12-step buying process but who has heard of a negotiation director?

Comments welcome!

Because Huthwaite International has a different website to the US-based Huthwaite Incorporated, would you mind sharing the following download link? http://bit.ly/bRX6If

Andy.

Andy Moorhouse
Research Consultant
Office: +44(0)1709 710 081 | Mobile: +44(0)7770 478 055 | Fax: +44 (0)1709 480 546 | Email: amoorhouse@Huthwaite.co.uk | Web: http://www.huthwaite.co.uk