More than $6m incremental value in year end negotiations

Challenge 

Our client, based in the USA, needed support to implement key customer initiatives and build their sales team confidence. Their major challenges were caused primarily by difficulty in managing supply chain issues, pressure being put on their margins and the sales team going into reactive/concession mode. In addition to this, there had been demand increases which had created severe service level issues with key customers, this caused a real shift in the balance of power and outcomes in key negotiations.  

Objectives 

Our client needed to find a virtual solution to improve the capability and confidence levels of the US team, introduce a consistent approach and framework and prepare the team for the key end of year retailer negotiations.  

Approach 

Our approach focused on aligning on the objectives and current capability levels through a series of discovery calls and meetings. We set out to create a coordinated, structured capability development programme tailored to equip the US retail team with the right approach, skills, structure, processes, and confidence. Our team delivered two levels of negotiation programme (Experienced and Essential) to meet the exact capability and customer needs of the retail team (margin erosion, service levels, ambiguity, inconsistent approach, and transactional relationships). In addition, we supported the workshop learning with an ongoing embedding programme using the real-life negotiations as the basis. 

Outcomes 

With our bespoke plan our client was able to ensure that no more concessions were offered to customers, service levels improved, margins were not eroded and cumulative financial gains were above $6m.  

The overall impact of both programmes was rated as ‘outstanding’ from a capability perspective.  

Consistent approach - “All delegates are more confident in using balance of power, negotiating solutions and ensuring they have a more collaborative and longer-term impact with customers”.  

Margins maintained: “All of our team is fully prepared for negotiations using ODE and PARTNER, with complete understanding of risk and best approach to negotiation. A step change in understanding retailer objectives with more confident and successful negotiations.  

No more ambiguity: “Clear questions and better clarity in all customer proposals. TNG’s Kaleidoscopic Preparation allows the team to clearly see all asks and variables from our supplier and customer perspective.”  

Effective use of assets: “ Clear approach in trading variables: more confident in leveraging our assets. Avoid conceding too much in first move and better view of our own balance of power”.  

Collaborative relationships: “Negotiation types & trading variables modules have now driven us towards more collaborative relationships with customers. Always take before we give, clear values for all variables and specific classification and choice of interaction with customers.” 

TNG provided me with tremendous value and allowed me to exercise my negotiation skills from past negotiation classes. I found TNG to be a more collaborative experience and a better learning environment vs competitor due to way the sessions were run/setup/flow of information.