Buying or Selling: Negotiating and Contracting

Explore how negotiations yield different outcomes, from zero-sum win-lose to collaborative win-win, and learn when to apply distributive or integrative strategies to protect relationships and results.

Identify when to walk away by leveraging your BATNA and plan b, and avoid negotiating when objectives are not worth the effort or bad faith or ethical concerns exist.

Understand what makes a contract binding—offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and intention to create a legal relationship—and why written contracts reduce ambiguity and risk in procurement.

Explore the last document rule governing standard terms in procurement, assess price terms, the risk of loss in transit, rejection of nonconforming goods, and negotiate contract terms with suppliers.

Power in negotiation shapes outcomes by enabling influence beyond authority, while different forms—legitimate, expert, resource control, charismatic, covert, and structural power—determine how you secure commitments.

Apply the supplier preferencing model by classifying customers into nuisance, exploitable, development, and core groups, then tailor strategies from pricing to long-term partnerships based on attractiveness and value.

Develop power in negotiation by assessing your strength, gathering market information, securing authority, and leveraging data and relationships to influence outcomes, while balancing position with interest.