Arriving at a customer meeting to discuss a consumer concept without the commercials is like teaching your pig to sing - it wastes your time and annoys the pig. Unless you have already given away the family silver, even the nicest of buyers will tell you that you can’t shirk the price discussion.

Your sales books tell you that the customer is king, and that’s why we get: “Mr Buyer - I would like to understand you to better serve your business. What are your needs and aims?”

“I need more margin, quicker deliveries, reduced stock, exclusive supply and rich promotion deals.” “I’ll take that back to my business, is there anything else?” Naïve or what?

I’m often asked why I stress that the buyer will always want more. There is a reality suppliers seem reluctant to face up to, dreaming instead that if they get the ‘sell’ right the buyer will simply say yes. Your example of when this once happened is an exception. There was probably another reason they did so: maybe it was more important to them to give your competitor hell.

I’m not being cynical, just realistic. Denial is not positivity, it’s naïvety. Getting this wrong is very costly. Of course, selling and being likeable is important and by keeping the meetings focused and concise you will remove the buyer frustration and half the problem. This leaves you only to deal with negotiation-motivated tactics. You have to be tough, but you don’t have to sink to their level. Constantly evaluate every buyer’s behaviour and react accordingly.

Getting this right means adopting an approach that combines your ‘selling magic’ with robust negotiation. Separating these skills has long been the trainer’s solution to a complex issue, but I mesh them together in a simple and effective system that reflects reality, a concept I call ‘Total Commercial Call’. After all, people attend calls/meetings - where selling and negotiation is what happens. This system includes preparing the negotiation first, then specifically selling the start point, and controlling the sales process.

Suppliers are innovators, buyers are negotiators. A selling ‘love in’ won’t work, but let the buyers take a ‘just negotiation’ approach - as suppliers your responsibilities require you to do better than that.