IBM, Microsoft, HP named nimblest negotiators IBM, Microsoft and HP are the three best negotiators in industry, a survey has found. The companies took the top three spots in a piece of research that sought to find the companies that were the most able negotiators. IT companies made up half of the top 10, with Cisco and Oracle joining their rivals in the chart. Industrial …
that the 'ablest' negotiators are the ones who have the most leverage?
For smaller organisations or those in a more competitive landscape flexibility is a requirement to win business and so sticking to pre-defined positions come what may is unrealistic (unless you want to go out of business when noone buys from you).
I'm not sure any lessons can really be learnt from the fact that Microsoft are the least flexiblity negotiators because that stance will lose them very little business and so makes perfect sense in their case.
[quote]Our primary goal is therefore to encourage the spread of good negotiation practice[/quote]
Position yourself as a monopoly and bully your target into submission.
Excellent negotiation practices there.
It would be interesting to see the result of this report if performed 20 or so years ago.
I can't say these companies are bad...they have done what it takes to become the leaders of their respective areas, operating morals beside.
But now to say they are great at negotiating, is it not disimilar than saying a thug with a gun asking for your valuables is also a fantastic negotiater....
How about I give you Mr Thug my wallet without its contents, will that do?
No...what if you keep the cards then, the cash is mine?
Whats that? If I want to live, to give you everything...hmm, let me see what other offers there are?
These companies dont negotiate, they bully.
Not sure the comment about MS (lack of) flexibility holds.. find the right angle (e.g. evaluate OpenOffice for government - like Newham did) and you'll be able to cut a better deal (that the rest of us pay for).
The suprise here is IBM & HP who shift real kit, with bits they buy from others with tight margins
Is their SSM (Solution Selling Methodology). If you're in sales, you'll want to go through this course and learn it.
The key is to align your goals to your customer's goals and to ascertain if there's a problem. (And there always is.) Then you need to have the ability to align your products to solve the customer's problem. If you can do that, make your competitors column fodder, you'll win the deal.
The biggest problem with IBM is also their success. IBM is viewed as successful negotiators in that they build relationships with their customers. So they become farmers and not hunters. You need to be both.
There's more to this and it gets in to the culture of IBM.
And yes, I escaped from the borg. ;-)
-G
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