At the negotiation table for purchasing, price negotiation is essential. From the perspective of bargaining, what skills can e-commerce companies use? Here are three more practical skills: soft and hard bargaining, analyzing the pros and cons, and saying that others are cheaper.
(1) Hard bargaining
An e-commerce company specializing in selling silk products online wants to purchase a batch of production equipment in order to build a one-stop service from production to after-sales. During the negotiation process, the e-commerce company believed that the supplier should add more items in terms of use and maintenance, because the silk process itself has high requirements for production equipment. However, the supplier’s reason was that it had already provided perfect services and provided guidance on the use of production equipment, so there was no need to add more items.
As the two sides were deadlocked, the e-commerce company decided to temporarily put the negotiations on hold and discuss them later. Therefore, in the second round of negotiations, the e-commerce company again proposed that the supplier should add more items, but the supplier still believed that it should not be added. By the third round of negotiations, the general content had been finalized, and the e-commerce company still asked to add more items. This time, because the negotiation deadline was approaching, the supplier no longer insisted and agreed to the request.
The e-commerce company persuaded the supplier to agree to its request by persuading the supplier and refusing to give up. This means that if an e-commerce company really wants to obtain a certain right, it should not give up easily.
(2) Profit sharing
The owner of an online shop learned that a cake factory wanted to sell a batch of cakes, so he found the person in charge and started formal negotiations. The online shop owner hoped that the cake factory would sell the cakes at a price 20% lower than the quoted price, but the other party certainly did not agree. At the same time, the online shop owner inquired about the news and learned that the cake factory was eager to sell the cakes because it had signed an order with an online shop before, but the other party broke the contract on the eve of shipment.
In other words, the cake factory had already produced the cakes, but there were no buyers. Therefore, the online shop owner used this information to analyze the pros and cons of the cake factory. The online shop owner said: “Your cakes have already been produced. If you delay for one day, they will be one day closer to the expiration date. The price I offer may not make you much money, but at least you will not lose money. You can decide whether to let the cakes occupy the inventory and not sell them, or sell them to me at the price I offer. Moreover, this batch of cakes is still a certain distance from my requirements, and I did not pursue it too much during the negotiation to lower the price.”
Hearing the words of the online shop owner, the person in charge of the cake factory was inspired. They were indeed eager to sell the cakes. After all, the shelf life of cakes was not long, and the temperature was still relatively high, and the inventory cost was not low. Finally, after careful consideration and comparison, the cake factory decided to sell the cakes at the price offered by the online shop owner.
(3) Saying others are cheap
During negotiations, e-commerce companies can say that they have discussed cooperation with more than three suppliers and have a very clear understanding of the market situation and prices of goods. When peers are all selling at a lower price, it is inappropriate for the other party to offer such a high price. If this method of saying others are cheap is used in bargaining, it can make suppliers feel the pressure from peers and other suppliers, thereby forcing suppliers to make concessions
Of course, suppliers often will not take the initiative to make concessions just because of the phrase “others are cheap” and let the other party successfully bargain. Therefore, while e-commerce companies use third-party bargaining skills, they must also be supplemented by other factors. For example, explain the reasons for valuing suppliers, including quality assurance of goods and timely settlement. This will make suppliers feel that they are not being blindly suppressed in price, so that they can show greater sincerity in negotiations and cooperation.
If e-commerce companies want to use the above three skills well, they also need to pay attention to the following matters
First, when using soft and hard methods to make suppliers reduce prices or agree to other conditions, pay attention to the reasons: Is it because they really need the goods that they insist on doing so, or do they just want to get a discount on the price?
The adverse effect of soft and hard grinding is that the supplier will lose patience to continue the negotiation and show great impatience. At this time, the e-commerce company must change its mindset, think about the conditions it has proposed, analyze why the other party cannot accept this condition, and whether it can make some concessions first to guide the supplier to agree to its conditions.
Secondly, compared with soft and hard grinding, the attitude of analyzing the pros and cons should be tougher. It is necessary to seize a certain weakness or unfavorable factor of the supplier, hint at the potential crisis of the other party, and force the other party to lower the price. It should be noted that even if the e-commerce company does Even if you have mastered the “six ways” of suppliers, you can only stop there. In other words, e-commerce companies should give suppliers a sense of timely assistance, so that suppliers feel that they can cooperate with them sincerely.
Finally, saying that others are cheap is a more commonly used technique, but it may not be as effective as the first two techniques. In this case, e-commerce companies should add auxiliary conditions to make suppliers think that the reason they want to negotiate is because they are interested in the quality, production process or after-sales service of the product. This move is conducive to guiding suppliers to agree to bargaining requests.
Tips
Negotiation itself is a battle of patience, which requires confidence and sincerity from both parties. In terms of bargaining, the above three techniques can be used alone or in combination. Of course, e-commerce companies can also use other bargaining techniques according to actual conditions, but in many cases, a combination of soft and hard methods can achieve the goal.