Articles or blog entries with negotiations tips are very popular in the Procurement field. I have written several myself here on Purchase Realm such as Don't Be a Negotiations Chatty Cathy and the others in the Negotiations category on the right. That is why I was intrigued by the headline Collaboration Trumps Negotiations on Purchasing Magazine's website.
The article is about establishing relationships with foreign suppliers and the complications that can arise due to the cultural differences. I want to apply the headline though to contracts between domestic companies and their suppliers.
I knew a Buyer once who used to say that "in the old days" a Buyer's job was to "beat up on suppliers" over every aspect of the agreement and to be relentless if they made a mistake or missed a shipment. He also said that the newer trend was to treat the Buyer-supplier relationship as a partnership.
How does that factor into contract negotiations time? An example would be "open negotiations" or "transparent negotiations" wherein both Buyer and vendor bring cost and pricing information to the table freely and agree to a reasonable profit margin that both sides can live with resulting in a "cost plus" contract.
Pricing is not the only part of negotiations in which a collaborative attitude can be established. If both sides freely share their goals for different aspects of the relationship, creative solutions can be found which satisfy both sides. That would be practically impossible to achieve if there is an undercurrent of hostility and true motives/needs are not known.
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