Mark Raffan: Negotiating Lessons from Procurement

If you’re a sales professional whose job revolves around procurement, you’ll want to listen to my discussion with Mark Raffan, CEO of Negotiation Ninja. Mark provides a master class in negotiations because he knows all the tricks in this field as he used to work on the procurement side. “I come from the dark side, the other side of the procurement world,” he said. “I started in sales and moved into procurement.”One of the biggest fallacies in the world of negotiations is the “win-win” scenario. Renowned negotiator Chris Voss says “fair is like a four-letter word in negotiations,” and Raffan mostly agrees with this philosophy. “The whole idea of fair is really, really scary,” Raffan says. “But it’s also the foundation for win-win. I used to put stuff in my (starting) negotiations just to give them up just to make you feel good.”One aspect in negotiations we discuss is when you have to concede in pricing, make sure to get some sort of reciprocity, such as payment up-front or a larger order than originally intended. We also talk about “nice to have” solutions versus a “must have” solution, along with knowing when to walk away and the impact time has on negotiations.Connect with Mark on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/markraffan/Find out more about Negotiations Ninja:https://www.negotiations.ninja/