By Martin Heubel, Founder and Director of Consulterce, a strategy consultancy for B2C Household & CPG brands.
It can be tempting for Sales VPs and directors to close negotiations to get them over with and get their teams back to work.
The problem is:
They arrive at this situation because their teams haven’t defined clear escalation and exit strategies upfront.
The result?
Most brands follow a reactive approach to their vendor negotiations:
- If Amazon cancels orders, they offer a leadership call.
- If Amazon puts them on hold, they improve their offer.
- If Amazon delists their products, they offer lower cost prices.
This approach can only produce one negotiation winner, and it will not be the brand.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to fix this:
Get your teams to quantify their red lines and trigger points for an exit strategy ‘before’ they start negotiating.
This way, they can close the negotiation with confidence, and whenever the result:
- Achieves their predefined investment target
- Outperforms their predefined investment target
- Produces a measurably higher ROI than initially planned
It sounds simple, but it’s one of the key mistakes among Amazon vendors in negotiations.
For further insight and support, contact Martin Heubel here
