Importers: Stay Away From Hard-bargaining in China
Hard bargaining is NOT the key to success. Threats and unreasonable demands may work in the short term but do not develop relationships. Eventually, you will need help from your factory. If you hard-bargain every time, favors won’t happen.
What does hard-bargaining say about you? It suggests that you view each deal as either win or lose. Very few negotiations center around single issues, such as price. While these deals can be viewed as win-lose or distributive negotiations, as your needs become more complex, hard-bargaining won’t successfully negotiate the contract.
The vast majority of negotiations are multi-faceted. Each challenge provides opportunities for you and the exporter to create win-wins or mutually beneficial agreements. Proper negotiators creatively identify differences for trade-offs, contributing to long-term trust.
If you negotiate by saying “No” to everything and frame the deal as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, you inevitably leave benefits on the table. Keep in mind that how you treat an exporter is how they’ll treat you in return. Negotiation hardball tactics create cycles of threats and demands. Stick to hard-bargaining, and say hello to impasses, distrust, and landing a subpar deal.
10 Hard-Bargaining Tactics & Negotiation Skills
The first part of avoiding an all-or-nothing tactic is to recognize this type of behavior in yourself. Yes, you must get that price point, and you need delivery for when you need it. However, self-awareness in and outside of business rules, knowing that there are always ways to meet positive goals, keeps your thinking creative.
Seeing yourself in the equation, as a non-hardball negotiator, prepares you for a hard-bargaining exporter. You must be able to identify this tactic and effectively counter and defuse it in ways that achieve your many goals. Check out Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes by Robert Mnookin. The authors explain how to avoid getting caught off-guard by hard bargainers.
If Building a Secure, Two-Way Relationship is Not Your Thing…
10 Hardball Tactics in Negotiation to Watch Out For
- Extreme demands followed up by small, slow concessions. This tactic protects dealmakers from making concessions too quickly, but it can drag out negotiations. Have a clear sense of your own goals, the best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA), and bottom line – don’t be rattled by an aggressive opponent.
- Commitment tactics. Your opponent may claim their hands are tied. Find out if these tactics are genuine; you may need to negotiate with someone who has more authority.
- Take-it-or-leave-it negotiation strategy. Offers should rarely be non-negotiable. Focus on the content of the offer and make a counter-offer that meets both parties’ needs.
- Inviting unreciprocated offers. Don’t bid against yourself. Indicate that you are waiting for a counteroffer.
- Trying to make you flinch. Name the tactic and clarify that you will only engage in a reciprocal exchange of offers.
- Personal insults and feather ruffling. Take a break if you feel flustered and let the other party know you won’t tolerate insults.
- Bluffing, puffing, and lying. Be skeptical about claims that seem too good to be true and investigate them closely.
- Threats and warnings. Recognize threats as hard-bargaining tactics. Ignoring a threat and naming it can effectively defuse the situation.
- Belittling your alternatives. Don’t let the other party shake your resolve regarding your BATNA.
- Good cop, bad cop. Don’t be taken in by this tactic; realize they are working together.
When you develop a good factory resource in China, keep them away from your customers, and vice versa. It takes a lot of work to establish key factory relationships. Delivery cycles are short. Controlling shipping goes a long way toward owning the most critical element in the entire importing process; successfully delivering the order. Allowing your factory to ship directly to your customer is unacceptable. Blind Shipping is a closed loop. Only the importer will know the points of origin and destination. Prevent supply chain predators from cutting you out. Deliver within 2-days. Learn more below. #BlindShipFromChina #ItsEasy
Perry David Caplan | Founder ShipCustomerDirect.com
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