Negotiating strategies with library vendors

Citation

Walther, J.H. (1999), "Negotiating strategies with library vendors", The Bottom Line, Vol. 12 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.1999.17012aab.017

Negotiating strategies with library vendors

Negotiating strategies with library vendors

Keywords Libraries, Negotiation, Vendor-purchaser co-operation, Vendor service levels

The practice and process of negotiating with vendors has become a professional hallmark for a seasoned librarian in today's library marketplace. While contract negotiation sounds daunting, it should not. Effective negotiating is a learned business skill, centered on strategies, skills and tactics. The entire process of negotiation is multi-faceted and the outcome of effective negotiating can leave your library with the tools and services your patrons need and demand.

First, creating a list of priorities of what needs to be negotiated with a vendor will give everyone in the process a framework from which to decide the level of importance of each element in negotiation. A working model may be structured as shown in Table I.

How do these elements work in negotiation? The top elements are elements your library will not be able to sacrifice. You are entering or continuing in a relationship for these services, abilities, or products. For example, your library wants to upgrade the CD-ROM towers and you want to have a specific number of CD-ROMs that will be searchable at the same time. Keeping with this example, a low priority might be of small consequence to the relationship, such as installation of equipment, which could be a low priority if your library staff is well-equipped for such a project.

Balancing these three elements is not easy. Creating working lists in breakout sessions, department meetings or discussions with other library members or colleagues will give you a sense of your negotiable items that fall into each category. Table II shows some hypothetical groups.

Negotiation strategies and tactics

A skilled negotiator uses those methods that best communicate what they want the vendor to hear. Answering questions with yes or no will never provide the vendor with enough information as to why the situation is unacceptable. Here are some outcomes of common communications strategies used in librarian/vendor exchanges:

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  Try saying things such as: "Issue X is agreed with, but only if Issue Y is included and not Issue Z." It will create a framework, in which to start discussions.

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  Phrases like "This seems acceptable at this point" will allow you the leverage to ensure each part of the offer is included in the formal, written communication, contract or offer.

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  "Take it or leave it" strategies are often offered by vendors to introduce products and services into a library. Take these trial offers, should you need them, but have the elements of expiration clearly delineated.

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  Remember tactics like body language. Keep your posture erect, your tone of voice consistent and audible, your facial expression responsive and your limbs relaxed. You want to develop a comfortable level of mirroring a professional business etiquette with the vendor. If everyone is physically at easy, the negotiations will have the best possibility of continuing effectively.

  

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  Rushing the process or delaying negotiations will not make them more effective, but more arduous. Move at a working pace.

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  Develop a communication strategy, such as a ladder approach. Using a ladder approach is just one strategy to use when discussing items that need to be negotiated with a vendor. Resolve the easy elements first and then work up the ladder toward more difficult discussion issues, such as cost. If one jumps directly into the cost of a product, the entire discussion could be spent on why something costs what it does and other items might not be discussed. Negotiation can be thought of as a military attack plan: first small battles are won or lost, which escalates to higher levels of warfare. Once those issues are resolved or left to be re-discussed, mid-level discussion elements might be revisited. Whatever the plan, the negotiation should be connected to the success of the library-vendor relationship. If talking is all that is planned, talking is all that can happen. If communicating about a plan is scheduled, then formulation and execution of the plan will follow.

Negotiate the legalese

Most negotiations involve some consideration of legal documents. Librarians working with vendors will predominantly sign contracts that are considered to boilerplate contracts, meaning the contract reads the same for all customers for the same product. Yet, librarians should still fully review these documents before signing. You have the full legal right to cross-out sentences, have the contract rewritten to include amendments for local situations or to clarify vague clauses. Librarians who use the following strategies will be better negotiators:

1. 1.

   Libraries involved in collective purchasing activities with several libraries or under the umbrella of university purchasing should communicate group and/or individual library needs.

2. 2.

   Asking your vendors to have everything in writing should not be detrimental to the vendor relationship.

3. 3.

   Ask and you shall receive. Once you have asked for a vendor to provide you with a service or product at a specific price, do not re-negotiate to see if you can get it even cheaper. You will be seen as unreliable and not trustworthy.

4. 4.

   Be clear about the situation with the vendor. If you do not enter into a relationship because of what your organization mandates, communicate the situation. Otherwise, the vendor may believe the situation occurred due to something else, such as the product line, vendor representatives or their sales ability.

5. 5.

   More personnel are becoming part of the compliance to the contractual obligations of the terms of the agreements. Do most of the paraprofessionals in the library opening the incoming mail realize, by opening software, that the library has now committed to the purchase and/or terms of the enclosed agreements? Caution should be addressed and communicated throughout the library staff.

Negotiation Rule No. 1: get everything in writing

Contracts allow both parties to examine how they view the needs of the library and to ensure that the library is getting what they asked for from the vendor. Contracts can be established over a series of meetings with the vendor. Again, most contracts are common language documents, which have a very direct purpose and protocol, such as ensuring the legal installation of software on a computer. When signing such obligations, consider the following:

1. 1.

   Read each clause of the contract in its entirety.

2. 2.

   Play out the variables of situations and negotiate individual elements.

3. 3.

   Ask for rewrites (changes, additions or deletions).

4. 4.

   Debate for exceptions for local situations and, if changes are not offered, ask why.

5. 5.

   And get the answer again, in writing. Vendor negotiation is a process, not a game or a checklist. Start slowly, proceed professionally, act realistically and expect results.

James H. Walther is on the Faculty at The Catholic University of America, School of Library and Information Sciences in Washington, DC.