Negotiating with Suppliers like a Pro!

Episode 56

If you are at the stage of your e-commerce business where you want to talk with suppliers, this episode is for you. Today, Ken and I will drop a lot of golden nuggets you can pick up to turn into a pro negotiator. Based on our experience, negotiations don’t have to be purely business-related. After all, you’re still talking with people who are only living within a different culture and working with their own set of goals. 

Let’s dive right in and learn how to negotiate with suppliers like a pro!!

[00:01 – 02:33] Opening Segment

• We introduce our topic for today
• Watch out for a book review!

[02:34 – 09:45] Don’t Split the Difference…Ever

• Here’s an e-commerce tip you can apply to your everyday life!
  • Let the people you’re negotiating with pick their destiny
• How will suppliers respect you?
  • Ken explains
• Ask the supplier’s preferred mode of communication
  • Faster and better responses
• Why ask the supplier of the minimum order quantity?
• When should you accept the first offer? 

[09:46 – 19:51] Ensure Quality of Products 

• Always ask for tiered pricing related to volume orders
• Gather quotes from several suppliers
  • David shares the benefits 
• Why you should ask for a shorter lead time
• David tells us to look for areas of mutual gain 
• Want some Amazon refunds? Check out Getida
  • Promo code: FTM400
• Ensure the quality of the products 
  • Ken explains how 
• Build an authentic connection with the other side 

[19:52 – 29:57] Be Respectful and Kind

• Ken talks about the power of negotiation and leverage
• David gives his insights about tactical empathy 
• Here’s a tip from Ken about ghosting you don’t want to miss!
• Amplify positive emotions with your suppliers
  • People appreciate the little things
• When should you ask for a discount or extra units? 
• Treat suppliers with respect and kindness 
• What are “black swans” and why should you look out for them? 

[29:58 – 32:35] Closing Segment 

• Express your desire for a long-term business relationship
• Do you have negotiation tips you want to add? 
  • Get in touch with us! Link below. 
• Final words

Tweetable Quotes:

“Price negotiation should be treated like a house purchase. Never accept the first offer put on the table.” – David Schomer

“Relationships are crucial…At the end of the day, [your suppliers] are people.” – Ken Wilson 

Resources Mentioned:

• Book: Never Split the Difference
• Worst Experience Dealing with a Supplier – Firing The Man Podcast

Got a negotiation tip you want to share with us? Go to https://firingtheman.com/contact-us/ 

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David 0:00
I have done this where I’ve said, Alright, your price quote is $6 per unit, I’ve got another manufacturer that will do it for $3 per unit. And they will respond with, well, I suggest that you go and do business or that other supplier. And then you either got to swallow your pride and say, I was lying, or you got to go find somebody else.

Ken 0:20
In America in the US, we call it lying. They call it business, right? So they will tell you anything you want to hear whatever makes you happy, they will tell you, and then they won’t deliver, you know, they might say, yeah, we’ll make that 30 days. But actually, they had never intended to have a lead time less than 45 days, they’ll just tell you that to get you to go.

David 0:38
You know, I think a lot of times, you got to realize that the person on the other side of this is human, and they’ve got emotions, too. And so it did not take a lot of extra heavy lifting, in order to not contact her for that three month period. But I do think that when my emails come in, rather my WhatsApp messages, she responds quickly because she appreciates that, you know, he was thinking of me, and this special time that I was going to have with my baby. And so that’s a pro tip. Also, it’s just being a good person.

Intro 1:08
Welcome, everyone, to the Firing The Man podcast, a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you were capable of more than join us, this show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your host serial entrepreneurs David Schomer and Ken Wilson.

David 1:33
Welcome everyone to the firing the man podcast on today’s episode, we discuss how to negotiate with the supplier. Now the way that we have this episode set up is Ken and I have written down a list of things that have worked for us as we’ve negotiated with pliers in our own business, and it is going to be rapid fire pro tips. With a little bit of conversation intermixed. Be sure to stay tuned for a book written by an FBI hostage negotiator that is absolutely going to change the game in terms of how you approach negotiations. Ken, what’s going on?

Ken 2:07
David? I’m glad to be in the podcast studio and, you know, negotiating with all of my suppliers are Chinese. I know you have some in the US. But I like negotiating. And I think it’s fun. And it’s one of the things that I enjoy, you know, so yeah, this is this is gonna be great. You know, I’ve been sourcing from China for three years, you’ve been sourcing from China for four years. So we just kind of, you know, we just did a brain dump of all the stuff that we’ve learned, and we’re gonna do some rapid fire. So let’s kick it off. David, which first one.

David 2:35
So this is one. And so for the at the beginning of the episode I mentioned a book in this book is called never split the difference by Chris Voss. And I think everybody in the world should read this book, whether you’re involved in business or not what it does, so he was an FBI hostage negotiator, and his approach to negotiations is excellent. He reminds us, you know, throughout the book that you are dealing with humans, and humans are not always rational. And so this first pro tip is something that I’ve used in business. It’s been something honestly, that I’ve used when I’m negotiating with my wife. And that is give the person that you’re negotiating with two choices that you are economically indifferent to. And the reason for this is people like to be in the driver’s seat. And they like to have the final say, and this isn’t an e commerce example. But it is a real life example, from my own life is I was negotiating on to buy some apartment buildings about two months ago. And I told the seller, listen, you need to decrease your price by $5,000, in order to make this deal work. And he was absolutely unwilling to do that he had a number in his mind, he was not going to go below that. And I said, Alright, instead of coming down 5000 How about you just pay my closing costs, which were $6,000. And so I was I think that negotiation worked, because I gave him two choices come down, 5000, or pay my closing costs. I was economically indifferent to whatever he chose. Mentally, he had placed more emphasis on the selling price, as opposed to the amount of cash that he was going to get out of the deal. And so this is something that I really like to use when I’m dealing with suppliers is, if I’m angling for something, I would like to things I will give them options and let them choose their own destiny. What do you think about that?

Ken 4:31
I really like that. That’s, it’s a good outcome for you either way, right. So I like that a lot.

David 4:37
Absolutely. Now, now, what about you? What’s pro tip number one?

Ken 4:41
Yeah. So before we get into the pro tips, I want to say a little bit like so I’ve sourced mainly out of China. And before we get into the pro tip, something that helped me really early on was understanding the Chinese culture and understanding how they do business and I would recommend to go get Two or three books on this, understanding Chinese suppliers and understanding the Chinese culture. And once you kind of educate your, this podcast, we don’t have enough time to go through all that. But go do that, learn it. And a lot of this stuff will, you know, it’ll it’ll pay dividends down the road when you learn more about their culture and how they operate. So number one, always represent yourself as a buying agent with access to capital, and from an existing brand or company in the market with sales history, the supplier will respect that and want to do business with you, if you come at it from an angle of I am just getting ready to start my company and I’m looking for a product. They’re not they don’t have time for that, you know, a lot of them don’t. But if you come in there and say, Hey, you know, I’m so and so from this company, and we sell on this marketplace in this marketplace, and we’re looking at this volume of orders, they’re gonna want to do business with you.

David 5:55
Yeah, establish some street cred, as the kids say,

Ken 5:59
David, what’s your next one?

David 6:00
So this next one, because negotiating, she’s communicating back and forth. I always like to ask, What is your preferred method of communication. And you know, oftentimes in the US, that is email over in China, oftentimes, that’s either WeChat WhatsApp, and because this is a negotiation back and forth, in which we’re communicating, I want to remove as much friction as possible. And so I will always go to where their preferred method of communication is, it’s just, you end up getting faster response times better responses. And I think that, you know, that’s a pretty simple ask of yourself is like, Alright, I’m going to give a little bit here. And hopefully, as we work through this process, they’re gonna give a little back. And so that’s, that’s Pro Tip number two. Nice.

Ken 6:53
Yeah, like that. One, it’s, you know, you’re giving a little bit and for a long term result, my next one is ask the supplier, if there’s an if there’s an MOQ, is a minimum order quantity, it’s one of the first things yet that you’re going to want to ask them, especially if you’re doing a product launch initial one, if you’re looking for new suppliers, it’s probably going to be a product launch, find out what it is, it’s going to help you develop your negotiating strategy further down.

David 7:16
Definitely, definitely. My next one is a first offer isn’t always the best offer price negotiation should be treated like a house purchase, never accept the first offer put on the table. And I would say that you do need to tread lightly here, you know, your manufacturer, you want to set up a good relationship with them. And so you probably don’t want to beat them down on pricing too much to where you’re going to damage that relationship very early on. And so you know, when I look at my own business, I often tend to the items that are most profitable, and if you put yourself in the shoes of a manufacturer, they are likely going to tend to the customers that are most profitable for them. And that’s what’s gonna keep them in business. And so I think, you know, negotiate on price but I will not be mean about it or overly aggressive especially on your first buy. What I will say is oftentimes after I’ve established credibility with a supplier, when I come back with my second order, I oftentimes will ask for, you know, better pricing, you know, I’m not flashing the pan, I am a legitimate business, I am going to I do plan on coming back to you for future orders. And usually on that second order, I like to increase my volume a little bit just to let them know that hey, I’m growing and I anticipate this level of buying that I’m doing for you to continue to increase

Ken 8:36
Yeah, like that a couple of follow ups I’d like to add on that one as you educate yourself on the Chinese culture and their process price negotiation is expected in their culture. So in the Chinese culture, like what you mentioned, David, you know, negotiate the first price is never the best one it’s not and it’s not designed to be so always have that in mind that that that their culture is negotiate based off negotiation. And another thing that I would like to add to that is what you mentioned even even further as you get down to the negotiating process, you know, even even a years down the road right after multiple wars, the manufacturer or the supplier they have to make a profit right so beating them up too much like you said, will eat away at profit and then they just won’t work with you anymore like they have they have a bottom line. So just respect that you know whether you know where that bottom line is or not if you get to where they’re not budging anymore, you might be getting close to that bottom line and just realize that no, however have a hard negotiator you are aggressive like David like, just know that there is a bottom line and they need to make profit to just respect that. My next one is I think you already mentioned it. David is always asked for tiered pricing related to volume orders. So whenever I go into a supplier, a new supplier, I’m asking even even a seasoned supplier, I still asked him, throw it out to you Hey, you know, what isn’t ml? q? It’s 1000 units, okay? What’s the price for that? You know, it’s $5 a unit, okay, what is your pricing for 5000 25,050 1000 units, and then get those pricing. And then I always try to whatever order I place I try to use the pricing for the highest value and just sell my next one is going to be a little bit more. So that’s kind of a next level. But yeah, always ask for tiered pricing related to value. Definitely,

David 10:27
definitely. My next negotiating tip is gather quotes from other suppliers. And oftentimes, especially if you’re developing a new product, you don’t know how much it costs to manufacture. And so if you go out and you get quotes from five different manufacturers, you’re going to have, you know, outliers, someone’s going to be the low price, someone’s going to be the high price, someone’s going to be able to manufacture that this month, some people may be backed up six months. And so this is an area where you’re gonna want to do the extra work and gather quotes from other suppliers. One benefit that doesn’t necessarily relate to negotiation, but just coming out with a better product is oftentimes the manufacturer that you’re talking about has some level of expertise in either the type of material that you’re using, or the style of product that you have. And they may give you some helpful suggestions on how to make your product better, hey, this needs a handle, or Hey, this is going to be slippery, when it’s wet. You know, they have the expertise in the end product and making that end product. And so that’s one thing, like when I’m talking to a supplier is I’ll say, you know, here’s my design, if you have any suggestions on how to make it better, please let me know. And oftentimes, you can pick up some really good nuggets here. Now what I’ll tell you is, do not Bluff, because the Chinese especially will call your bluff. I have done this where I’ve said, All right, your price quote is $6 per unit, I’ve got another manufacturer that will do it for $3 per unit, and they will respond with, well, I suggest that you go and do this or that other supplier. And then you either got to swallow your pride and say, I was lying, or you got to go find somebody else. And so you know, do the extra work and get quotes from multiple suppliers. Or I can what’s next on your list.

Ken 12:14
So this one is asked for a shorter lead times, or you can demand it, you’re not going to get them if you don’t ask, right. So this kind of plays in a couple of different areas like, especially this year with COVID. You know, if you if you look back, like, you know, March April, May like it was lead times were just crazy. Like some some of this, my suppliers, I can’t even get raw material, some of them were way back up. But at the end of the day, a supplier has a list of clients that they’re that they’re that they’re making product for. And depending on the value of you, as you alluded to earlier, David, like, all the clients have a specific value to the to the supplier. And, you know, if you’re low on the totem pole, well, your products lead time is going to be based on where you at fit on that list. So a couple of things I’ve done, especially with newer suppliers, or suppliers that I don’t order from very often, you know, I say, Hey, you know, I want X amount of lead day, you know, our lead time, you know, they say it’s, you know, this amount of time, I’m like, Okay, well, can we improve that? And if they say, yes, hold them to that, you know, because a lot of times, like, like I mentioned earlier, the Chinese culture, the way they do the way they operate business, you know, you know, in America in the US, we call it lying, they call it business, right? So they will tell you anything you want to hear whatever makes you happy, they will tell you, and then they won’t deliver, you know, they might say, yeah, we’ll make that 30 days. But actually, they had never intended to have a lead time, less than 45 days, they’ll just tell you that to get you to go. And you can always build it in like, Hey, you know, I want a discount. If you don’t meet this lead time of 30 days, like you agreed to, I want to I want to, you know, 25% discount. If not, I’m going to cancel the order. So you can kind of escalate in that way. But I will lead times it’s definitely one and it really just depends on the supplier. But always ask for shorter lead times it increases your your inventory cycle.

David 14:05
Definitely, definitely, you know, my next pro tip kind of mirrors what you just said. And that is to discover areas of mutual gain. And what I mean here, and I’m just going to use an example from a supplier that I’ve been working with for a couple years, is I have talked to them about lead time. And I want to improve that as much as we can. And one thing that you know, I want product fast, and they want a little bit of heads up on what my next orders are going to be. And so, you know, we had a discussion and they said, Listen, the way we’ve been doing it, you send us an order, we see how much material we’re going to need, we send that out, and then it may be three or four weeks till we even get the material back that we can manufacturer. And so if you plan on placing an order in a month, let us know like approximately how much you’re going to be ordering. You don’t have to place the order then, but give us some heads up. We can go out and order That material. And then when your order does come in, you know, we can hit the ground running. And you know, that’s that’s the area of mutual gain, they want some heads up. And I want my inventory as fast as humanly possible. And so it is not a big deal to me to give them that one month heads up, hey, I’m in stock things going well, but I’ll probably be ordering in about a month, probably gonna order about 1500 units, then they can go and, you know, get the materials that they need to, you know, get ready for your order to come in.

Ken 15:30
Yeah, like that one.

David 15:32
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Ken 16:24
My next one is let’s play or no up front, there’s going to be quality inspections by your team during production and pre shipment. So this has been really helpful. You know, I’ve read I’ve read a book early on. And the guy who wrote the book kind of he had about 20 years of experience sourcing and in China, and he lived in China and worked with all these factories. And one of the things that the Chinese factories are known for is downgrading the raw materials over time. And so, you know, for instance, you know, if they’re making jeans, you know, I don’t know where that came from, but but a pair of jeans, right, they will put less stitching in it, because it’ll be cheaper, or the raw material, the actual gene material, they’ll instead of like say it’s, you know, 20 mils thick, they might order a 15 mil stick and save cost on raw materials, but still charge you the same price. But they’ll slowly do it over time where you won’t notice unless you’re highly attentive to the details. The other thing is to like what you agree upon, early on in the order, like for me, it’s a must have, I always do a pre shipment inspection and get pictures I send in my own guys, you know, I hire somebody, whether local or local, go in do an inspection, send me pictures before I issued the next payment. So and also is psychological, if you if you the reason to do this to tell the supplier upfront is to let them know, the Hey, shenanigans are not gonna be allowed with this client, like he’s going to be sending in inspections, themes and looking at this stuff. So either they will choose not to try to pull shenanigans on you, if that supplier does that. So it’s just kind of a kind of a Hey, heads up, you know, definitely,

David 18:11
my next pro tip is be genuinely interested in what drives the other side. And I’m going to give another example from a supplier that I work with my primary contact at this company is not the owner of the company, it’s an employee of the company. And she told me that she gets a smaller commission rate for smaller orders, but she gets a higher commission rate for large customers. And so she is incentivized to sell you as much as possible. And so what I did was, I had been about every six weeks, I was placing an order for 2500 units. And I said all right, you know, what is at what point does the commission rate go up? And she’s like, well, if you were to double the size of your order, I would get paid a higher commission rate, and I can offer you a higher price, or excuse me a better price. And I said, Alright, I’ll tell you what, I will order 5000 units. But I would like you to ship half of that today, in half of it in six weeks, when I would be placed in my other order. And I got I got better pricing, but but she was able to negotiate with me Give me better pricing. And you know, what I’m interested in is avoiding long term storage fees. And so if they can warehouse them in China for free, and just give me a six week pause on shipping them. That’s great. there’s a there’s a zero cost for that. And my primary contact at the company is she gets a higher commission rate and that is what drives her when she’s negotiating with me. And so just understanding that and asking the question, you know, do you get paid a commission rate? does it vary with quantity? And if you can help them out there, they’re going to help you out?

Ken 19:52
I like that one. Yeah, I’ve never I’ve never used that one. I’m gonna have to put that one in my my arsenal now. Yeah, if you don’t ask you don’t get Exactly, exactly. So I’ve got a follow on from the from the last one and then I go on to the next one. In terms of letting the supplier know you’re going to do pre shipments and everything. This one is kind of an add on, let the supplier know early on in your relationship, that if the quality of the raw materials is downgraded, without your approval during the lifecycle of your relationship with them and your product whoring, you will refuse the shipment, like hands down, if the materials are downgraded the raw materials you’re going to without your approval, you’ll refuse shipment, let them know early on. Okay, so next one, try to negotiate the best terms you can get right out of the gate. And if you you’re likely not going to get any good terms out of the gate, most likely. But if you don’t, then ask them when and how, you know, when when would you offer me better terms? And is it over a certain amount of quantity? Or what so kind of at least get the roadmap laid out to where if they say on your third order or six months, at least then you can pull the trigger with that supplier? So kind of kind of greasing the skids.

David 21:05
Yeah, definitely, definitely. My next pro tip is build trust based influence through the use of tactical empathy and tactical empathy comes from that book that I mentioned at the beginning of the episode. Never split the difference by Chris Voss, when you’re using tactical empathy, you are appealing to your counterparts emotions, to build rapport, a mutual understanding, influence, and ultimately deals give an example of this, I had a primary contact one of my suppliers, she was pregnant. And so it did not take me long to ask, Hey, when are you due? How much time are you taking off. And then I said, All right, what I’m going to do is I’m going to place my orders, she’s she was taking three months off, said, I’m going to place my orders in a way that I’m not going to bug you for the three months that you’re off spending time with your child, please enjoy that and know that some of your other customers are not are going to bother you, you’re not going to hear a peep from me enjoy that time. And, you know, I think a lot of times, you got to realize that the person on the other side of this is human, and they’ve got emotions, too. And so it did not take a lot of extra heavy lifting, in order to not contact her for that three month period. But I do think that when my emails come in, rather my WhatsApp messages, she responds quickly, because she appreciates that, you know, he was thinking of me, and this special time that I was going to have with my baby. And so that’s a pro tip. Also, it’s just being a good person. I mean, that’s that’s the one thing when we talk about negotiating, I think a lot of times people think about like a really aggressive, hard nosed way to negotiate. But you know, sometimes that turns people off, and just taking interest in, you know, what’s going on in their life? And how you can you know, how your decisions impact their life? I think that is a very good way to negotiate without acting like a total prick.

Ken 22:56
Yeah, I like that. And, you know, something I’ve definitely learned over the over the years is in business relationships are crucial. You know, and you’re highlighting this and a relationship with your supplier, you know, they’re their people, you know, they might work for the factory, you might be dealing with the factory owner or whatever. But at the end of the day, they’re their people. And yeah, that’s huge. Keep that at top of mind. Now, I’m kind of switching the corner here. My next one, it’s one of my favorite ones, too. If negotiations are not going your way, goes to the supplier for seven to 10 days. And I’ve used this so many times. And it’s it works a lot of times, and if it doesn’t work, you’re probably at the bottom of the line of where they have room to work. Now, can

David 23:44
you tell me how so for some people, they may not be familiar with the term ghosting. So what so how would you go somebody? Sure. So

Ken 23:51
if, you know, and I use WeChat for most of my suppliers in China, and so if you know for going back and forth, and you know, hey, I’m putting this order in for 1000 units and and I want you to you know, to put these tags on it and and to ship it, you know Express DDP whatever, and for this price, and then they come back No, I can only do it for this price. And I go back no this price and they come back and say they say the same thing. If they repeat what they say, I ghost them, and meaning I don’t reply to them on WeChat for seven to 10 days, they will usually it takes about three days, three, four days, they come back and they’ll either come back with an automatic lower price or they’ll come back and ask a question would you like us to do something else or you know, then you’ll know you’re probably at the bottom of the road here with the with the with the negotiations. So maybe you can get a quicker lead time or something else like that. So ghosting is just not replying to them on whatever communication medium whether it’s email WeChat WhatsApp,

David 24:53
definitely definitely. My next pro tip is aim to magnify positive emotions and this is Something that I would say like, generally people like to talk about themselves. I know, sometimes I do. I think we’re all like guilty of that a little bit. Yeah. And so I do like a little bit of small talk, and just to learn a little bit more about the person that I’m talking to, and usually inside of five minutes, there’s something that’s exciting in their life, and maybe work related, it may not be, you know, one thing that comes to mind here is, I have, again, somebody at one of my suppliers, that is my primary contact, they’re in college, and they were studying for a big exam. And they said that this was two months, they said, in two months, I have a big exam on December 2. And so, you know, anytime I’m not working, I’m studying. And so when I hung up with them, I went on my Gmail, I typed up an email that said, Good luck on your exam, and then I scheduled it to be sent on December 1. And, you know, that is something that, I think is just going a little bit above and beyond. But I think people appreciate that stuff. They appreciate the little stuff that you know, hey, he wasn’t just making small talk. He really, really did care what I have going on. And you know, that’s something that, you know, you don’t need to put it on your calendar, just type the email, and it’s top of mind and forget about it. And, you know, I don’t think that I think they will appreciate it when they receive it. And they won’t think, Hmm, this was auto sent, or like, set up to auto send two months ago, you know, thank you. That was nice for them to remember. And so again, we’re dealing with humans, or we’re basically just irrational apes. And his Bryan Callen says,

Ken 26:32
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve got an add on to an earlier one. And then I’ll get to my next one, which is kind of in line with what you just said, that one that I that I skimmed over earlier is if the supplier misses a lead time that you’ve agreed upon, ask for a discount, or extra units. And I had this happen earlier, like we mentioned, the the pandemic kind of threw everything out of whack. And March and April, we had one of my suppliers I’ve been ordering from for about two years. And they they gave me a 45 day lead time. And this was in April, and they missed it, it was a 60 day lead time. So I was super pissed. But I was also understanding that, hey, you know, they couldn’t get raw materials, they couldn’t get anything. So they said, you know, we missed the lead time by 15 days. So we’re going to add 2000 extra units on and and that’s almost, I mean, to them, it’s it’s cheaper than a discount, because they need to make a certain amount of money. But the raw materials and the labor are super cheap, right? So it was it was better for them. Same for me, I can sell those and make and make margin. Right. Okay, so the one I wanted to cover it, and it’s in line with what you, David, a lot of the ones you’ve highlighted. And I’ll just add a little bit of a personal story to it be personable and kind, respectable suppliers culture, and then invite them to meet or visit their factory if possible. Now, with COVID, you know, they visiting China is not not possible, probably for another six months or so. But I’ll give you a story of in 2019, I had one of my suppliers that was on a trip to the US to meet another, another one of their clients. And, you know, I invited him to the city that we’re in, and I say, you know, come in come and meet and you know, and you know, with me being a solopreneur, I don’t have a an office or a, you know, a high rise to bring them to so I rented a conference room at a local hotel. And, you know, we had a two hour meeting, they brought product samples demos, and we just you know, they brought their team before I’m a team of three, there was just a really good meeting and took them out to dinner. It was a great time, you know, breaking bread, like, now I have a relationship with that supplier, that my terms that I have with that supplier are really, really good. And that added to my bottom line. So just being nice. catering to them, treating them with respect and breaking bread. That was that was huge.

David 28:49
Definitely, definitely. Now my last pro tip, as it relates to negotiating is keep an eye out for black swans. And what a black swan is, is a piece of information that gives you huge leverage. Now I have been on the lookout for a black swan, and I haven’t found one. But I look forward to at some point using this. And let me use an example to explain what a black swan is, say you’re ordering from a supplier and you ask, Hey, I will place a huge order with you. But can you store you know my goods for six weeks and only ship half of them? If you were to find a newspaper article that said such and such manufacturing company has doubled its warehouse space. And there was a quote in there that said, yeah, we have a lot of space and we’re kind of growing into it. That would be a perfect piece of information that you make the ask if they don’t deliver you say, hey, that’s weird. I read in this newspaper article, that you’ve got tons of space and you’re growing into it. And so that’s a very specific example. But I would just say, you know, generally be on the lookout for things that can give you leverage in negotiation. Nice. I

Ken 29:59
like that one. Black Swan, I haven’t used that yet, I’ll have to have to add that in. Last one I’ve got on my list is lets a supplier know you’ve worked in a space for a long time, and you’re looking to build a long term relationship with their factory. Now this can work in it, and sometimes it doesn’t. But, you know, if the I mean, at the end of the day, the factory owner, they’re looking for business, right? And if they know they can get a client that that’s just repeat business scaling along the way, that’s huge for them, right? So if you come in and say, Listen, I’ve been in this space, this niche, whatever product you’re selling, I’ve been in this space for, you know, X amount of years, at this sales volume, we’re adding this new product, you know, we’re gonna ramp up and use different sales channels, just come at them and say, you know, I want this to be, you know, this has has potential to build into a long term relationship with you. They’re gonna like that. That’s like, hey, that’s kind of like the security and hey, multiple orders, review orders, something like that. So that was my last one for the wrap up.

David 30:56
Definitely. Well, thanks, everyone, for listening. I’m going to leave you with a teaser. I have had negotiations that have went very well. I’ve had a couple that have gone fairly poorly. One in particular stands out and if you go to firing the man on YouTube, you will hear a story about when I was negotiating with an Amish Bishop, and he almost punched me in the face. It’s a wild story, and you should check it out on our YouTube channel. But anyway, thanks everyone for tuning in this week. And if you have any questions or you have some negotiation tactics that you did not hear us talk about, go to firing demand comm slash contact us and leave us a voicemail love to hear from you. Thank you.

Thank you everyone for tuning in to today’s Firing The Man Podcast. If you like this episode, head on over to www.firingtheman.com And check out our resource library for exclusive firing demand discounts on popular e commerce subscription services that is www.firingtheman.com/resource. You can also find a comprehensive library of over 50 books books that Ken and I have read in the last few years that have made a meaningful impact on our business, or that head on over to www.firingtheman.com/library. Lastly, check us out on social media at Firing The Man on YouTube at Firing The Man for exclusive content. This is David Schomer and Ken Wilson. We’re out

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