Maîtrisez l'art de la négociation : expressions clés pour réussir en anglais professionnel
Chris Maker est acheteur chez Dishes Corp., un distributeur néerlandais spécialisé dans la vaisselle. Nous sommes en novembre et il est en réunion avec Peter, représentant commercial de Plates ‘R Us, afin de négocier leur contrat pour l’année suivante. Dishes Corp. achète des produits auprès de Plates ‘R Us depuis 5 ans et, chaque année, les prix ont augmenté de 4 % en moyenne. Le patron de Chris lui a demandé de ne surtout pas accepter de nouvelle augmentation cette fois-ci. Voyons comment il s’en sort.
Peter: Chris, thanks for taking the time to meet with me this morning. I see that you’ve had some healthy purchases from us over the last 6 months. Seems your customers are enjoying our new designer line.
Chris: Sure, we’ve had a lot of success with your plates. We’d like to continue in this direction for next year. I guess it’s time again to discuss the terms of our contract renewal.
Peter: Of course, that’s precisely why I’m here. In principle, we can keep all of the terms as they are now.
However, I will need to modify your prices a little bit. This new designer line has been quite a hefty investment for us and we just can’t continue with the rates we’ve been charging.
Chris: What sort of increase are you talking about?
Peter: It would be 5%.
Chris: 5%! You’ve got to be kidding me. There is no way that I can accept that. You have considered that our volumes have grown by 300% since we started buying from you, right?
Peter: Indeed, Chris.
We really appreciate the great work you’re doing with our products, but we’re still under heavy pressure to get our prices up to acceptable levels.
Chris: Peter, I’ve accepted price hike after price hike from you since we’ve started doing business together. There must be some alternatives.
Peter: Tell me about the outlook for next year. Perhaps if we can expect a sufficient volume increase then we can play around a little with the numbers.
Chris: I have orders lined up until June.
If we look at the figures, this year, we bought 26,000 plates. Next year, I’m expecting to purchase at least 32,000. That’s a 23% bump.
Peter: That’s a promising forecast. If you can guarantee that number somehow, I can drop the price change to 2.5%.
Chris: I have no issue putting this volume in our contract. As I’ve said, the orders are there already. But I’m still not willing to accept an increase. What if I anticipate some of my orders for this year?
Is there anything you can do?
Peter: Well, if you can commit to receiving next year’s full expected volume by June and also pay in advance for the shipments by the end of the year, then I think I can figure out how to convince our management to forget the price increase for this year.
Chris: Peter, if I understood you correctly, you want me to pay now in full for 100% of next year’s volume? I think that’s a little excessive and would put us in a really difficult situation.
What I can propose is to place an order for 10% of next year’s volume by the end of December. From January on, I’ll order 3 months’ worth of plates at once, so 8,000 at a time.
Peter: That could be acceptable. But could you consider also reducing your payment terms?
Chris: What did you have in mind?
Peter: If we can get down to 30 days net, then we can forget the price increase.
Chris: I can agree to that. But I can’t have you coming back to me with another price increase proposal next year.
I need to have this price in place for at least the next 3 years.
Peter: I’m afraid 3 years isn’t feasible, but 2 I could do.
Chris: Great, I think we’ve reached a good compromise here. Now, why don’t we get that down in writing?
