If you’re in purchasing or procurement, how can you reduce your costs, increase your margins, and still ensure the quality of service required from your vendors? When your vendor contracts come up for renewal, bid out the contract and come up with several...
In a Forbes.com article last week, Jerry Kennelly, a 30-year Silicon Valley veteran, described a negotiation he was involved in while at Inktomi, one of the first internet search engines, as follows: “There were two of us, and when we went into the room we faced...
A friend recently purchased a used car “as is” for around $5,000 from a dealer. About 45 days later the transmission tanked. Unfortunately, the problem appeared after the state “lemon law” warranty expired. My friend obtained several estimates...
In her recent FT.com column, Memory doesn’t matter when you have the net, Lucy Kellaway humorously recounts recent memory lapses and multi-tasking failures. She considers several solutions, one of which is to make lists. When preparing for a significant...
I don’t usually read Hollywood gossip stories but this headline from USA Today, “Kate Walsh, ex to divide assets by flipping a coin” caught my attention. Why? Because it illustrates what you can do when you just can’t find an objective standard...
Wal-Mart recently provided an example of how you can obtain a better deal by making your counterpart’s less attractive alternative, or Plan B, a reality. According to a recent CNNMoney.com article, Wal-Mart recently removed Arm & Hammer liquid laundry...
In its Small Business Questions & Answers section, CNNMoney.com suggests one way to fairly set employee salaries is to rely on third-party salary surveys. Why? Because relying on independent standards, like a third-party salary survey, (1) gives you credibility,...
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. recently announced its plans to buy Dollar Thrifty for $1.2 billion, about $41 per share. Almost immediately, the standards dance began in the negotiation between Hertz and Dollar’s shareholders, which must approve the deal. Yesterday, a...
In a recent New York Times article compiling consumer dispute resolution tips submitted by readers, a frequent suggestion was to simply ask, “What would you do if you were in my situation?” The contributors reported this typically led to the sharing of helpful...
With auto sales on the rebound, you may be in the market for a new automobile. Here are 10 things to do when negotiating your next new car purchase: 1. Your first contact with the dealer should be to simply gather information – don’t get sucked into a...
Federally-mandated negotiations began recently to resolve an on-going labor dispute between Boeing and striking aircraft workers in Long Beach, California. Federal mediators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service convened the negotiations and previously...
At one of my recent negotiation seminars, a participant shared the following story. A product manufacturer was involved in a dispute with a trade magazine regarding several negative product reviews. The manufacturer was unhappy because it believed the reviews were...
