KA Hypermarket Management Research / Huang Jing Case: Sales supervisor Zhang Jun has been quite troubled in recent days. The main reason is that the Spring Festival promotional activity he is responsible for signing with Hypermarket A has been stalled, as the hypermarket has been reluctant to approve the agreement. With only one month left before the Spring Festival, if he cannot secure a good promotional position, how can he guarantee sales during the peak season? If he fails to meet the sales targets assigned by the company at the beginning of the year, wouldn't all his efforts this year be in vain? Through private inquiries, Zhang Jun learned some inside information about the hypermarket. It turned out that a major brand planned to invest in buying the naming rights for the hypermarket's Spring Festival promotional activities. That is, the company would fund the event, and the hypermarket would arrange the Spring Festival product promotions and display decorations according to the brand's design. Since the hypermarket was still uncertain whether the brand's plan would conflict with its overall Spring Festival promotions, it neither rejected other companies' promotional requests outright nor made a clear statement. The purpose was to delay and wait for the right moment to decide. Zhang Jun couldn't afford to wait. After learning this, he set his sights on Wang, the person in charge of the negotiations. With Wang's guidance, Zhang Jun presented his Spring Festival promotional plan. Because the plan aligned well with the hypermarket's overall promotional arrangements, it was unanimously approved by the hypermarket. The most fundamental attribute of business is self-interest. That is, no matter what, business organizations must try to ensure the maximization of their own interests. Therefore, when negotiating with business organizations, one should also grasp this concept. Every gesture made by the other party has a clear purpose, and no negotiation terms are set in stone. So, when suppliers encounter a deadlock in negotiations with hypermarkets, they should view the issue objectively. Don't absolutize any problem; instead, try to guide the other party in a direction favorable to you in your negotiation strategy. Difficulty in negotiating agreements is a common feeling among all suppliers. But if asked why it's difficult, few can answer completely. Because it's not just a professional issue but also a matter of mindset. Why are agreements difficult to negotiate? Many people compare negotiation to a battlefield without gunpowder. On this battlefield, any "gesture" made by either side can be seen as a strategy and tactic, with real and profound purposes. We have probably all experienced times when we argued over an originally unimportant clause during negotiations. In fact, we make such a stance of not yielding an inch and being difficult, only to better protect our negotiation bottom line. So, we deliberately create a "difficult" situation and atmosphere during negotiations. Of course, the other party does the same. Therefore, negotiation is actually a process of probing each other's "real" and "false" aspects, where both sides engage in a game of power amidst the illusions created by themselves and the other. Generally speaking, the subjective impression of "difficulty" in negotiations comes from two aspects: first, the other party cannot continue the negotiation; second, the other party is unwilling to continue. The former is relatively simpler, as it lacks specific negotiation methods, forms, skills, content, personnel, materials, etc., making the negotiation plan too thin to proceed. For example, when a hypermarket asks a supplier to provide sales forecasts for new products, if the supplier hasn't prepared adequately and cannot provide the relevant information, the negotiation may reach a deadlock. The latter situation, where the other party is unwilling to continue, is more complex, mainly because it involves too many personal subjective factors. To understand why the other party is unwilling to continue, you must first clarify their true purpose. For instance, is there a past conflict? Does the negotiation content affect their future work? Have you placed too much psychological pressure on the negotiator, making them prefer to avoid mistakes rather than seek achievements? Or are they acting out of self-preservation? In short, you need to deeply explore the personal factors behind the other party's reluctance to continue. Many supplier negotiators tend to overlook the personal subjective factors of their counterparts, always habitually viewing negotiations from an organizational perspective. They fail to consider that the negotiator does not always truly represent the organization; fundamentally, they can only represent themselves. If a negotiation is very beneficial to the company but of no benefit to the individual, the buyer lacks sufficient motivation. So, in negotiations, if you cannot make the other party feel that the negotiation benefits them personally, it will be difficult to reach a result. Once you understand this, what to do next becomes clear. Designing Comprehensive Benefits in Negotiations In fact, any inter-organizational negotiation involves too many personal factors. Every small change in personal factors can significantly impact the direction and outcome of the entire negotiation. Therefore, as a negotiating party, to grasp the initiative, you must start with the individual negotiator. Through targeted interest inducement, guide the other party to facilitate the negotiation. For example, in the above case, Zhang Jun initially felt the negotiation was not progressing because he didn't understand the buyer's true intentions. Later, he succeeded because, based on understanding the hypermarket's real intentions, he effectively guided the buyer's interests. By researching the brand's background and the main theme of its promotions, he designed his own promotional content and theme. After all, even if that company bought the naming rights for the period, it doesn't mean the entire activity would be a one-man show. Many other companies would still be needed to cooperate. So, rather than losing the promotional opportunity, it was better to become a "supporting role" in the activity, assisting the hypermarket in completing the overall promotion. It was precisely because Zhang Jun adjusted his mindset and implemented the correct negotiation strategy that he was able to sign the promotional agreement. Individual interests must never be equated with organizational interests. We often see that the same matter can have different outcomes when the specific negotiator changes, which illustrates this point. Imagine if a supplier negotiates with a buyer with whom they have a past conflict; even if the supplier offers the most favorable terms, the buyer may not agree. People are like that; many times they value their own feelings more than the organization, and companies have suffered no small losses in this regard. Any agreement negotiation, no matter how difficult, has room for negotiation. The key to whether the negotiation can continue lies in whether the negotiating party has grasped the key point—the "benefit combination." If your proposed terms can bring attractive personal benefits to the other negotiator while also reflecting cooperative benefits for their company, your negotiation is half successful. Business dealings with hypermarkets are essentially about interest connections. Even if personal relationships are good, without interest links, it's still pale. This interest is not single-faceted but balances public and private interests. It's not just about money; there are many ways to express interests. As long as you have something they don't and they need, it can be included in your benefit plan. Author: Huang Jing Huang Jing is an expert in hypermarket backend system design and a researcher on supplier-retailer relations. With over ten years of professional procurement experience, from large state-owned retail enterprises to foreign-invested hypermarkets, she has served as procurement section chief, procurement manager, procurement director, and training director, possessing a relatively complete career in the modern retail industry. She has conducted in-depth research on supplier-retailer relations, especially systematic research on procurement issues, negotiation issues, fee issues, contract issues, and various conflict resolution issues that suppliers care about. -END-