I hope that you have enjoyed the article, “Negotiating Your Spot Buys.”

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This article was inspired after an NLPA member asked me for advice related to negotiating his spot buys.  He described his situation where his suppliers began reacting the same way to his negotiation attempts, saying “We’re as low as we can go on this.”

His reaction when he got this type of response from suppliers?

He placed the order anyway.  Every time.

What’s wrong with this picture?

This behavior had two things wrong with it:
1.  It provided a reward for the exact opposite of the desired behavior; and
2.  It became predictable

Rewarding the opposite of what you want and doing it predictably are not the way to greater negotiation results.  And nothing will change unless this gentleman changes his approach.  There’s a saying that goes something like “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”  This very much applies to negotiation.

The advice I provided to this gentleman was much of what I wrote in the article.  I hope that it helps him.  And, if you’re in a similar situation, I hope that it helps you.  If you’re not in that situation, I hope that it serves as a reminder to continuing thinking of new ways to approach negotiations, even for spend as seemingly insignificant as your spot buys.

Look, even if each spot buy order is only $2,000, if you save an extra $250 or so per day on your spot buys by applying the simple things you learned in the article, you can almost justify your salary on spot buy cost savings alone!