Effective Purchasing and Contract Negotiation Strategies

Introduction

This Effective Purchasing and Contract Negotiation Strategies training course challenges the belief that anyone can purchase well, and within that belief everyone can negotiate effectively. Neither of these beliefs is true. Organisations large and small waste their energy and profit in this belief. This training course could prevent your organisation losing significant sums of money as it firstly establishes a solid understanding of the benefits good purchasing offers and how to create a function capable of delivering those benefits through organisational excellence.

The second fundamental to achieving success is the ability to negotiate, not only with the marketplace but with internal departments e.g., Engineering, Production, Finance, and Safety functions. Unfortunately such negotiation is often delegated to those least able to deliver an effective outcome. This failure impacts upon the whole organisation resulting in reduced profitability and increased business risk, and an increase in personal stress and operational costs.

The delegates are expected to compare their understanding of their capabilities against the key principles that support effective purchasing and to take away concepts and ideas that will benefit both their business and them personally.

This GLOMACS Purchasing and Contract Negotiation Strategies training course will highlight:

• The objectives of a well run purchase process and how to reach your internal customer. Establishing a basic understanding of the process of Negotiation
• Importance of getting the right specification to reduce both cost and risk. Evaluating potential suppliers and managing the supply chain
• Tenders & bid evaluation & analysing Price Cost and Value through financial management /analysis
• The purpose of a contract / Legal needs / Terms and Conditions. Preventing contract failure. Discovering your personal negotiation capability
• Obstacles to good negotiation. Tools of the successful negotiator. Essential elements of negotiation AND developing a personal action plan for improvement

Objectives

At the end of this Purchasing and Contract Negotiation Strategies training course, you will learn to:

• Build an efficient and effective purchasing function
• Communicate more effectively inside and outside of the organisation
• Understand your personal strengths and weaknesses
• Understand contract needs and eliminate contractual risks
• Plan and deliver a successful negotiation and negotiate with different cultures
• Have confidence in your ability to negotiate at all levels with all organisations

Training Methodology

This training course is highly participative, delegates are expected to relate the teaching to their experience and to challenge current thinking in group discussion. Team based exercises cover key learning stages where delegates explore problems and offer solutions to set exercises. Small scale negotiations throughout the seminar lead to a more complex negotiation on the final day. Each delegate is expected to develop an action plan through which to implement learning back in the workplace. 

Organisational Impact

Create confident employees who will challenge the ‘way things are’ and improve purchasing performance at reduced cost and risk, thereby increasing company profitability.

• Identify the key failures which prevent the purchasing operation from being successful
• Develop a more confident individual, comfortable at representing the function at all levels in the Company
• Reduce total cost of purchased materials, equipment and services at reduced risk
• Change from being reactive to needs to being proactive in all aspects of performance
• Protect the Company’s interests through better understanding of negotiation and contracts
• Make performance improvement a key element in managing the business

Personal Impact

Have the understanding of what good practice looks like and the courage to stand up for change where it is needed.

• An appreciation of what is possible in Purchasing and how you may contribute more
• An understanding of your present capabilities and where you should invest in personal improvement
• Increased confidence in operating in different environments / cultures / business levels
• Greater comfort and confidence when placed in ‘difficult’ negotiating positions
• An appreciation of other people’s problems and how to persuade them to your way of thinking
• Become more challenging of existing methods and systems and less accepting of the way things are