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Does anyone have any advice on negotiating prices with book publishers or distributors?
- Are the bulk discounts they offer set in stone or can you negotiate larger purchases?
- What are some ideas gaining leverage in negotiations?
- Any ideas for managing all of the different accounts that are needed to be set up with different companies.
- You can use the same thing that some of those companies use, CRM programs. Although I`m not sure how many manage relationships UP the supply chain.
Response - What is a CRM?
Customer Relationship Management. Businesses that sell to other businesses invariably use these to keep track of who their clients are, the contacts, their likeliness to buy, what they`ve bought and so on. Although most have a high license cost, you can download and try out SugarCRM, an open source CRM solution. It`ll give you an idea of how it looks from the persepective of the sales representative.
Actually, large corporations can often negiotiate better prices. They are the ones who tend to offer more motivating commissions to their sales and account reps and will give them the leverage to get a competitive deal. That`s how big outfits get big and stay big, leveraging the economy of scale. You`ll still run into the classic unfeeling monolithic big publisher/wholesaler but as the market gets more fragmented due to the Internet, everyone is shaking up their pricing strategies.
Aaron,
Discounts for bulk purchases are never "set in stone." As far as negotiating a better deal with them, the first thing is to determine exactly what volume your order is, then shop it around. Speak to as many distributors as you can, tell them that you`re price-shopping for the best deal. Use one distributor`s price to leverage another to lower theirs. If you have long-term needs, let them know that this is the beginning of a purchasing relationship, not just a one-time deal. The key is to put yourself in the driver`s seat, you`re the one making the decision, you`ve got the power to make the deal, now they need to bring the right deal to you.
Let me know if that helps. My partner and I specialize in negotiating large-volume purchases of all types of merchandise.
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