UNDERCOVER COACH


NO DEAL DEAL OR


‘SURELY IT’S ALL BIDS AND TENDERS THESE DAYS’ I hear that there is little or no negotiation with suppliers these days ‘Surely it’s all bids and tenders these days’ is their assertion and they have a point.


Competition in some sectors is now extremely tight and profit margins can be very low leaving the supplier little room for manoeuvre in a negotiation. A friend recently asked for my help regarding buying a quad bike and so I ‘phoned round’ for prices and found little or no difference countrywide. Eventually I asked one dealer what the profit margins were on the vehicle my friend preferred and I got the reply ‘Not as much as I thought it was going to be!’ He then happily gave me the figure and, again, he had a point.


A relation of mine is a car dealer. I asked him what sort of profit margin dealers had to play with on the country’s best -selling super-mini. ‘£400 on the basic model’ came the reply. If only £400 goes to the firm to cover staff wages, rent, light, heat, advertising etc how does he manage? He told me that he survives on the profit from the more luxurious cars that he sells a lot less of - but mainly his income comes from the second-hand market and the profit made on servicing the vehicles he sold.


IT’S ABOUT THE DEAL I believe that if this is the case for so much of what we need to buy these days then it’s about the deal that we negotiate rather than the price we pay. It is a rather sideways logic but here’s an example. A few years ago I urgently needed a good quality digital camcorder for some of the work that I do.


THE UNDERCOVERCOACH CONTINUES HIS THREE PART SERIES ON NEGOTIATING IN THE WORKPLACE. IN THIS EDITION HE TAKES A SIDEWAYS LOOK AT ‘NEGOTIATING WITH SUPPLIERS’ AND IN PART THREE THE COACH PROMISES TO GIVE US SOME TIPS ON ‘NEGOTIATING PAY AND CONTRACTS’.


2


I DECIDED TO NEGOTIATE I shopped around on the Internet and the kit that I wanted was only about 10% cheaper on the net than the price being asked at the manufacturer’s own rather up-market shop in my local shopping centre. So I went to the manufacturer’s shop and asked the manager if he could match the Internet price. He told me he was not allowed to reduce the price. He was about to go about his business when I decided to negotiate.


I said ‘Is that it?’ He said ‘Afraid so’. I said ‘How about consumables, disks, warranty? He said ‘Oh I see, well, I can probably match the disk price’. He then paused momentarily and in a voice that started off in a hesitant tone but ended up on a triumphant note he said ‘I can get you an extended warranty - for nothing’.


I sealed the deal immediately thinking that it really wasn’t too difficult to get what I wanted from the manufacturer locally and walk away with it for the same price I would have to pay for something that would have to be delivered by an unknown Internet vendor.


30 www.windenergynetwork.co.uk


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