Paragraph number two is a little bit different than before, because we've
already jumped right into telling our decision in paragraph number one. So what
do we do in paragraph number two? You can take time to explain your decision a
little bit. So rather than explain at the beginning and make somebody angry,
you explain a little bit in paragraph number two.
You can also include any new request. For example, maybe you can give a bigger
discount, but for a bigger discount you need a bigger order. So you can tell the
buyer: Can you buy more? Can you buy 10,000 units more? If you can buy 10,000
units more, then that changes the situation, doesn't it? So you can explain
things like that. A counteroffer to the buyers counteroffer, basically, right?
Getting very confusing, isn't it? For example, if the buyer can make a larger
order, then maybe we give them a bigger discount, very simple. Let's look at some examples.
"Price is only one factor of competition, although you may be able to receive a
lower price from a different company, we are confident that you will find our
quality superior. We offer to ease terms of payment to 60 days, ds-day, after
sight." That's a little great example there. So we've said no. Paragraph
one, we said no we cannot give you what you want.
Now paragraph two, we try to explain a little bit that we can't do that, but we
can explain that there's something we can do.
So this paragraph number two is a way to make a counteroffer to the counteroffer.
Is to change the terms a little bit to try to make the buyer at least feel
there's an opportunity to make a deal.
Look at example 2: The products you are interested in are very
similar to our Travel Light line. Although travel light line products have
fewer features, the quality and basic designs are the same. The Travel Light
line may be more appropriate for you. The prices are 10% lower than our Travel
Executive line. We have included a price list of the Travel Light line for you to examine.
All right, this is a really great example,
and I love this example because what are we doing? We're changing the situation,
and that's always good in a business negotiation. Change it up a little bit.
Make it interesting, and what do we do here? We said: "Hey, this is the product you
want. Hmmm...we can't change that price, but what about this product. This product is
really good too." And in this way, we increase the chance that we're going to
get an order, and at the same time we increase the chance that we can make the
buyer, maybe not happy, but at least feel that we have a relationship. So we're
switching the deal a little bit. Make a different product offer. You know the
buyer might not know that you have another product that they would like, so
here's your chance to kind of introduce that. And that's a good example of doing
that. Let's look at another example:
"We hope that the above concessions will please you." Now in this case, we went
ahead and we agreed. The concessions mean we give them something. We give up
something. "We are anxious to cooperate to the utmost of our ability to meet your
needs and convince you of our company's serious business efforts." So that's all
very positive. Of course, this one is very easy because you agree to the
counteroffer. So of course it's easy to agree to the counteroffer.
All right, let's look at the last final paragraph of this negotiation offer:
If there's any information that you did not write in the first two paragraphs, then
you can write it here. Maybe something that was not super important, but you
don't want to forget, or maybe something just extra that
you did not talk about before.
Now, this letter could be one of two ways, right? It could be a positive letter, or
it could be a negative letter. Positive means I agree to your counteroffer.
Negative means I reject your counteroffer. So one way is kind of
easier, and one way is harder. Obviously, agreeing to the counteroffer is pretty
easy, so then you just end the letter by saying I look forward to your order. I
hope everything goes good in the future. But if you reject the counteroffer, then
now you cannot talk about getting an order right away, but you can try to be
positive you try to stay positive and encourage the buyer to take a positive action.
When you agree to the buyers
counteroffer, you can tell them you're looking forward to the order as soon as
possible. And when you reject.... Well, in that case, you hope that in the future, an
agreement can be reached. And if they have any questions, you can invite them
to contact you that's always good manners. "If you have a question, please
feel free to contact me." That sounds really good.
When some of the counter offer is accepted and some is rejected, maybe half
and half, or a little bit, or maybe you give them half of what they want but not
the other half. Well. in that case you can say something positive, and you can say
that you you've made changes. And you hope that they like the changes. You
never want to emphasize the things you did not change. So if I change the price
$10, but you want $15. Then I will try to say something like: "I really hope I've
made you happy. I've tried to make you happy by giving
you $10." All right, now of course I don't say: "Hmm, I hope you're not angry that you
didn't get $5 because I only gave you 10." But you know we try to be positive, so
that's the idea here. Stay positive.
Let's look at some examples. In example number one: "We await your decision on
this matter. Please understand that we simply do not have any room to go lower
on the price. Your customers can distinguish our products from the
competitors' goods, which just cannot match our higher standards." So here you
know the problem is we've said no to their counter offer. So they're not going
to be happy. They're not gonna like it, but we're trying to emphasize our
product is good. Our product is not easy to find from other companies. Our
competitors do not make this product so good. So we're trying to make it clear
that the price that we're giving you is really a good value. It's what we deserve.
Lets look at example 2: "If you decide that the travel light line better suits your needs,
we can offer all the conditions set out in our earlier offer. Prices will differ as
noted in the catalog." So look for the catalog if you want to see prices. "We
eagerly await your decision." You know I really like this example, because it's
changing the situation. And here in the last paragraph we're being positive: "Hey,
I think you'll like this product. I know you wanted that product, but this product
I think is really good for you." You see that kind of positive attitude. Even
though we said no, even though we rejected their counteroffer, we still say
positive and try to give them a chance to do something that'll make them happy
and us happy--- win-win. Now the last one is the easiest one because we give them
what they want, right? Example two: Here we are. This is actually
example three, right? "We are prepared to begin the shipping process immediately
after we receive your order. If you have any questions, please fax Mr. Smith
directly" So what we've done here is nothing. Well,
it's actually the shortest one, isn't it? Let me see is that the shortest? Yes the
shortest one we have. Yeah, why would you need to write much. You're saying yes.
You're giving them what they want, so of course they're gonna be very happy.
They're not going to you know change their mind. I don't think so, okay, no big
deal. We just confirm. We're going to ship soon, and if you have any questions call
this guy right here, and he'll help you out.
Okay, here's an example letter, and this is the negotiation letter. And of course
we can see our heading, opening, body and closing sections. And we can see the
subject line here is nice and clear. You know I think I would like it more if it
had like a specific order number maybe in it, some kind of order number. That
would be really good. If it had a specific product name, I would like that
even more. Make it even more clear, and I know this is a letter and you're looking
at you're saying: "Hey, I don't write letters like that. I write emails." Well,
that's my point. Your email body should look just like this. It should look
exactly the same. This would be your email inside. You need to do this to be
professional. You need to avoid looking like unprofessional, right? You don't want
to look unprofessional. You want to stay professional, and part of that is a
really good subject line. We're always looking for a good subject line. So there
you go. That's our kind of negotiation process, isn't it?
And I teach negotiation in another class. That has a lot of videos online, but that
is not the same as the trade situation, where we kind of know that we're trying
to get to a win-win situation. And we kind of know what we want. It's just
sometimes a little bit of difference. In other negotiations, those differences may
be huge, but I think usually at this stage when you're writing letters
already, it's not a huge difference. You just need to work out the small details.
That's why you need to be careful and be accurate. So good luck with your international trade.