We give you the secret to negotiate contracts for your benefit

Negotiate a purchase contract to your advantage
How do you negotiate your purchase contract?

In the negotiation phase, your aim is to obtain the best purchase contract, an agreement corresponding to the best offer on the market on the various terms: price, guarantee, delivery time, payment terms, etc.... Often, a first supplier offers the best price, a second supplier offers the best price, a second the best guarantee, the third the best payment terms, etc.

You should never approach a negotiation thinking that you will have to sacrifice a good compromise on one point of the contract to get another on the next aspect.

Want to know more about negotiation techniques?

Here is the correct way to go about negotiating your purchase contract:
1. Summarize the responses obtained to your RFP

Use your e-sourcing tool or create a dashboard to list all the important points and each supplier offer for these points.

2. Identify the best compromise for each term and create the purchase contract

Write the best expected results for each term on a single page as if only one supplier had offered them to you. This document will correspond to what the purchase contract should look like and it will represent the objectives to be achieved during your negotiation.

3. Figure out what sacrifices you can accept

Sometimes it's just not possible to get the perfect purchase contract. So you need to prioritize and prioritize the points that you really need, and what you simply want. For example, are you ready to accept a shorter guarantee to get a better price? Can you waive this damage clause if you get the payment terms you want?

The negotiation approach should not be seen as simpler or lighter, but it should make it possible to identify the most important terms of the contract.

4. Negotiate ethically and confidently

Because at least one of your suppliers will have offered the best offer over at least one term, you can be sure that the market can meet your expectations. You can therefore approach the supplier that best meets your expectations while remaining careful not to exceed the ethical limit. Do not say that you want to obtain this or that condition under the pretext that a competing supplier is able to offer it to you.

On the other hand, if one of your suppliers suggests that your request is not reasonable, simply let them know that you have proof that it is reasonable!

5. Validate the compliance of your negotiation with a Checklist

At each round of negotiation with suppliers, we invite you to validate your negotiation based on the essential points of your company's strategy. The attached tool gives you a concrete example of validation points to be respected before finalizing your agreements.