Lessons from the Negotiation Master – “Always Leave Something for the Birds”

by Omid Ghamami October 7, 2021 negotiation training

Let me share with you a negotiation story that I hope you will learn from. My dad passed this last December.  He was a diplomat for many years, and after all, he was my greatest negotiation teacher.  In his elder years, we made a decision to go to my orchard every Sunday and sit down […]

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Influence vs Authority – Measuring Your Negotiation Skills

by Omid Ghamami September 27, 2021 negotiation training

This is probably the most important negotiation topic there is, and nobody really talks about it.  Let me give you some perspective for a moment. Picture yourself as a child again.  Your parent tells you not to do something, and you ask “why?”, and they answer with “because I told you so.”   You didn’t like […]

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Opening Positions in Negotiations – Prepare to Be Surprised

by May 17, 2020 negotiation training

One of my colleagues is a truly, truly gifted negotiator.  He has negotiated some incredible deals.  However, I recently heard him take a position that I couldn’t disagree more with.  In fact, my position conflicts with most everyone’s perspective on the topic. The source of conflict of perspective pertains to opening positions in negotiations.  Specifically, […]

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Stop Negotiating with Just Sales People

by Omid Ghamami April 12, 2020 Uncategorized

I watch so many negotiations where the only people involved from the supplier’s side are sales people.  Account manager, area manager, regional manager, and finally North American Sales Manager are typically the people I see in US based negotiations.  The same sort of logic goes in international negotiations.  This not by accident, and it’s certainly […]

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Disruptive Negotiations – What You Need to Know

by Omid Ghamami March 22, 2020 Uncategorized

Ordinary negotiators abound.  Ordinary negotiators take the circumstances of a deal and negotiate the best outcome, usually focusing on price.  They mostly focus on at-the-table negotiation strategies and measure their results on misaligned comprehensive criteria. Ordinary negotiators get walked all over by suppliers and never know it.  Reference a 7-part blog series I wrote entitled […]

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Assessing Supplier Bargaining Power in Negotiations

by Omid Ghamami March 1, 2020 Uncategorized

It always amazes me how many procurement organizations I run into who enter into major, multi-million dollar negotiations, feeling like they have no leverage at all.  How does this happen? Like I’ve always said, negotiations are won and lost before they ever start.  Almost all the negotiation training and consulting out there is focused on […]

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Why You’re Using Your Suppliers Wrong

by December 29, 2019 Contract Training

What I’ve seen in working with at least 20% of the Fortune 500 is a consistent theme:  There is an overwhelming focus on driving down costs through price negotiations.  Anything achieved in that realm is considered a victory. It’s not a victory at all however.  From a supply chain view, there are no costs savings.  […]

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Unintended Contracts – Here’s How They Happen

by November 7, 2019 Uncategorized

Procurement Pros, you need to know how contracts happen.  Let me tell you a true story. A few years back, I received a check from my mortgage company for something like $2.28.  A pointless dollar amount.  I assumed it was some sort of escrow payment refund. I should have thrown it away, but I quickly […]

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