Price negotiations with a US buyer: five rules that protect your margin

Rules one to three

First: never start from your best price. US negotiating culture assumes room to move, and whoever starts at the bottom ends there too. Second: trade every concession for something, be it a larger quantity, a longer contract or prepayment. A free discount teaches the buyer to ask for the next one.

Third: talk about value before price. Supply reliability, quality consistency and fast communication are things a US buyer can convert into money, and they must be put on the table before you move to the numbers.

Rules four and five

Fourth: know the competitor's price. If you know that the buyer's current supplier ships from Poland, you also know the order of magnitude you are competing with, and import data often gives a surprisingly good basis for this. Fifth: dare to say no. A deal that eats your margin is worse than no deal, and, oddly enough, a polite no raises your credibility in the buyer's eyes.

The American buyer respects a partner who knows their numbers and stands behind them.

Where we help

For sales representation clients we conduct these negotiations ourselves, and the database gives us backup: we know what similar goods cost on the market and from whom the buyer currently buys. This turns bargaining from guesswork into a fact-based process.