L4M5 Commercial Negotiation Questions and Answers

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There are multiple sources of divergent positions that can arise in situations where money is exchange for goods and services. There are 2 different types of sources. Those that arise from the content or subject matter of the negotiation (what is being negotiated) and those that arise from the process of negotiation (how it is being negotiated).

Sources of divergent positions - the process of negotiation:

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Line of best fits is the line that goes approximately through the middle of the data points with an equal number of data points above and below it. Line of best fits is a method of calculating medium value instatistics.

Standard terms and conditions are basic terms and conditions of business governing transactions that do not have a definitive contract, usually designed to be included in form documents such as orders. While there may be conflicts regarding standard terms and conditions, they are about the content of negotiation, not the process.

Type of purchase: when buying organisation makes an decision to purchase an item, a buyer is faced with three possible scenarios. The item to be bought could be a straight re-buy, a modified re-buy or a new purchase. Decision on type of purchase is purely an internal decision.

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LO 2, AC 2.1

A perfectly competitive market is one with the following features:

- There are many firms producing identical or very similar (homogeneous) goods or services

- There are no barriers toentry to the market or exit from the market - anyone can enter or leave easily

- Both producers and customers have perfect knowledge of the market place, prices, costs of production and influences on demand and supply

Under these conditions, the price andquantity will always tend toward equilibrium as any producer that sets a price above equilibrium will not sell anything at all, and any producer that sets a price below a equilibrium will obtain 100% market share in theory. The demand curve is perfectly elastic, which means that it will be horizontal. In a perfectly competitive market, it is difficult to increase profits through pricing, and suppliers instead must focus on their cost structure. As these conditions imply, there are few if any examples of perfectly competitive market.

LO 2, AC 2.2

A shift in demand occurs when an influencing factor other than price changes. Those factors are:

- The income ofbuyers

- The tastes and preferences of buyers

- The prices of other goods and services, especially substitutes and complements

- Expectations of buyer about the future

In this question:

- 'Prices of complementary goods decrease' will lead toquantity demanded for that complements rising, then demand for consumer good will increase accordingly.

- 'Price of the consumer good decreases' will increase the quantity demanded for that good, but it will not shift the demand curve

- 'Customers' expectation of higher prices in the future': in this scenario, customers tend to buy more to store in present, which leads to demand curve shifting to the right

- 'Consumer tastes shift toward substitute products': Demand for substitutes will rise, so demand forthat consumer good will decrease and the demand curve shifts to the left.

LO 2, AC 2.2

Explanation::

In some markets, suppliers experience peaks and troughs in demand and so buyers can increase their leverage through developing an understanding of how busy their vendor are at particular time during the year or business cycle and targetting atquieter period. Similarly, if a buyer can develop an understanding of supplier capacity and to what extent have they covered their fixed cost, they may be able to target suppliers when their average costs are likely to be lowest. Vendor's average costs will be higher at low and high capacity utilisation.

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A negotiating team can be as few as two people, and one person can play one or more of these roles:

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As from the scenario, Jasmine will act as an observer and a scribe (or secretary).

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Elasticity refers to the responsiveness of quantity demanded or quantity supplied to a change in price or another factor:

The price of a product can be described as being elastic if a small change in price leads to a big change in demand.

The price of a product can be described as being inelastic if a big change in price leads to a small change in demand.

The formulae of elasticity of demand is known as the following:

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Investors or shareholders who have high level of influence but low interest belong to 'Keep satisfied' quadrant of Mendelow's Stakeholder Matrix.

You may read 2 versions from L4M1 and L4M5 here:

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LO 1, AC 1.1

'Supplier may want to encourage buyer's demand': the buyer tends to prefer lower price, if supplier wants to encourage its customers tobuy more, it needs to offer discount at bulk amount. So this option is not acceptable.

'Supplier may have high fixed cost - variable cost ratio': Supplier with high fixed cost needs high volumes to break even, but once achieved, it may be able to offer significant discounts for bulk orders

'The supplier may have reached economy of scale': when economy of scale is reached, cost per unit will be minimal which often leads to more favourable price.

'Supplier may need to open new facilities to meet increasing customer's demand': Increasing customer's demands may excess supplier's current capacity. Therefore, supplier may need to extend its capacity by investing more in facilities. To cover these fixed cost investment, supplier may charge higher price.

LO 2, AC 2.1

Buying organisation may increase its leverage with suppliers byconcentrating spend. Supplier spend consolidation can take many forms as outlined below:

- Vendor base reduction: straightforward reduction of number of suppliers in any category

- Volume pooling: pooling cross organisational requirement until your order volume is high enough to attract new bidders/additional discounts

- Volume redistribution: making recommendations following spend analysis to move from one supplier to another

- Volume consolidation across categories: certain purchase requirements may be common across a number of categories. In the scenario, XYZ has combined different categories but closely related to office services into a larger contract so that they can increase their leverage.

- Standardisation and harmonisation of specifications: analysis of specifications and standards for a high spend purchased input, may show that there is a little difference between them and that the specification can be standardised or at least harmonised across the group or across national, regional or global operations.

- Forming purchasing consortia: buyers may decide to come together and combine their purchase volumes to attract better deals.

LO 1, AC 1.3

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MIL criteria indicate 3 limits that negotiator should establish:

M - Must achieve: minimum target/maximum you can concede on this point; the mandatory requirement or fall back position

I - Intend to achieve: realistic target you are aiming for on this point

L – Like to achieve: stretch target to achieve on this point.

PPCA is purchase cost analysis

TIMWOOD indicates 7 types of waste in Lean principles

The RAQSCI model is a mnemonic summary of a business model used to define and structure business requirements

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According to Paul Steele's 'The Seller's Perspective', customer can be classified into 4 categories as below:

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In this scenario, although SBL's spend claims large portion in suppliers' revenues, their draconian treatment will reduce SBL's attractiveness in supplier's perspective.SBL falls into Exploit quadrant. With exploitable customers, suppliers tend to 'milk' the customer and charge a high price to compensate for all the pain customer put on them.

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Developing specific negotiation strategies in areas where risk or spend is high involves analysing a wide range of objectives and variables within the context of the organisation'sbusiness requirements. The first stage in any negotiation preparation is to define your overall objectives which may be related to a single variable such as price in the case of a standardised requirement, or many variables in the case of capital equipment. Your negotiating strategies and tactics will all be focused on achieving overall objectives.

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In the scenario, the manager propose to 'split the difference', which means each party will accept some of their demands and concede some. This is known as 'Compromise'.

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There are two major persuasion methods: 'push' and 'pull'.

Persuasion can be defined as encouraging someone to do something that you want them to do for you. Persuasion is reasoning with someone so that they will believe or do something they might not otherwise do. Persuasion can be considered as 'pushing' on TOP so that they can accept the change in attitude or behaviour as a result of your actions.

Influence is the ability to affect the manner of thinking of another. Influence can be considered as pulling on TOP so that you achieve the same result, but TOP feels they have changed their attitude or behaviour as a result of their reflection and thinking, and not your direct actions.

There are 5 options in this question:

'Threat of punishment, costs and damage': The influencertries to 'push' the other party to act as he/she wants by using force. This method is effective but short-lived. The influencer also risks to developing reputation for being heavy handed and dictatorial.

'Argument based on information, logic and reason':The influencer uses logic and reasons to persuade the other party. This is also known as 'Persuasive Reasoning' (Push)

'Using language and imagery to ‘paint a picture others can see’': The influencer seeks to influence another by understanding the other'semotions, and stimulating that party's imagination to visualise the desired future goal of the influencer. This is also known as 'visionary (pull)'

'Working together to define the problem, the goals and the best solution': In this technique, the person seeking to influence another involves the other party in the decision making process. This is known as 'collaborative (pull)'

'Listening to, involving and supporting others': In this technique, the person seeking to influence another tries to discover the other party's emotion and aims at mutual understanding. This is also a collaborative approach.

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Internal stakeholder support will be important not just at the initial negotiation of the contract, but potentially throughout the life of the contract right through to exit.

As a general rule, connected stakeholders (with the exception of suppliers) have a low level of influence on procurement negotiations.

Suppliers are connected stakeholders who have contractual relationships with the organisation.

Commercial negotiation objective should be driven by thebusiness needs of the organisation, and not just the instinct of procurement.

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In the scenario, the main cost driver is suppliers' mark-up. The priority should be limit the margin to be added. XYZ Ltd can agree “cost plus”contracts with their suppliers to ensure no IT product purchased exceeds an agreed maximum margin level. Procurement teams can use their benchmarking tools to police these contracts. Cost plus contracts are agreements where the contractor's pricing is based on itemising allowable costs and then adding an agreed margin.

Market penetration pricing - pricing low to win a large share of the market

Market skimming - pricing a new product high in order to make a large profit from the purchases by initial customers. This is an effective strategy only in the absence of competition.When competition appears, market skimmers usually drop their prices

Premium pricing - usually pricing high because the market is prepared to pay extra for the kudos associated with the product, thanks to, say, a reputation for quality, or a highly fashionable brand name, and so on

Negotiation variables such as price or contract length, etc arethat can be traded with TOP in a negotiation. The more variables you can identify, the better. The more variables you can identify and articulate, the lower the chances of the negotiation reaching deadlock as more possibilities are facilitated regarding more creative solutions.

Below are examples of negotiation tradeables in buying professional services:

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LO 2, AC 2.3

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Different questioning styles can be used to elicit desired responses:

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Explanation:

Integrative approach to negotiation used when the interested parties are attempting to create more of something of value to share, also known as collaborative approach or win-win. Integrative, interest-based negotiation can facilitate constructive, positive relationship and establishes contracts between parties on a foundation of goodwill. In integrative bargaining, both parties seek to 'expand the pie' by creating more value for both the buyer and the seller. Integrative negotiation ‘shares thepie’ and is interest rather than positional based.

In distributive bargaining, the focus is on claiming value and getting as much of the pie as parties can.

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LO 1, AC 1.2

The supplier's perspective model has two axes: Spend value and Attractiveness:

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Exploit is the quadrant where the buyer has high spend but low attractiveness. Overarching supplier objective would be: "Milk this customer and charge a high price to compensate for all the painthey put us through".

The buyer should increase its attractiveness to raise the position to Core customer. To do this, a buyer may:

- Simplify procurement processes

- Simplify contracting processes

- Use clear and concise documentation

- Eliminateonerous supplier terms and conditions

- Make the payment on time

- Use transparent processes

- Promote ethical behaviours

LO 1, AC 1.4