Much of retail negotiation hinges on how effectively you build and manage your supplier relationships. When you cultivate strong partnerships, the benefits add up—for you, the vendor, and your customer.

What builds true partnerships? We asked key vendors and retailers what influences them most. Here are some tips that came from those discussions.

  1. Talk to vendors when you don’t need to negotiate: Check in frequently with existing vendors to ask about their current state of business, priorities, plans for upcoming markets, launches, etc. Because these conversations will often be more relaxed, vendors will be more likely to share information more freely.
  2. Be more skillful than human: The very word “negotiation” creates an emotional response in some buyers. Focus on your objectives not on the vendor rep’s style of communicating, which could trigger your emotions and cloud judgment.
  3. Ask more than tell: The single biggest pitfall for buyers in vendor negotiation is to talk too much and not ask enough open-ended questions—the kind that begin with “What…Who…How…Why…” These open the conversation and encourage dialogue. They can also reveal critical vendor information that can be used later.
  4. Have a plan: Even experienced buyers can forget to cover certain topics in a crowded agenda. Writing down not only your negotiation objectives but why the vendor should agree is one of the key differentiators between average and superior retail negotiators.

Supplier relationships are often key to the business, but because of the competitive nature of retail and the ever-changing needs of the customers—as well as competitors raising the bar—these relationships regularly need to be revamped to better meet new business demands. It’s an ongoing process, and it requires continual attention and skill building.

What are some of your best tips for building effective supplier relationships? Share in the comments, or tweet us @mohrretail.

Posted in Retail Negotiations
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About MOHR Retail

For more than 30 years, MOHR Retail has developed the critical people-to-people skills needed to create results in the retail industry—and we’re just getting started. Through innovative classroom and online learning methods, as well as our ongoing national retail research projects, we continue to stay on top of the trends so we can fuel the success of specialty stores, chain stores, outlets, catalogue retailers, department stores, and more. Nowhere does learning meet experience as it does in a MOHR Retail training program.