With soaring costs, it is more critical than ever to be able to recoup increasing costs from your customers.
All too often, buyers hold firm and growers are either turned away or don't get the increase their business needs.
Recovering increasing costs can be a difficult conversation to have with customers, especially when buyers resist the increase for as long as possible.
We want to arm you with the skills to gain control, creating the best chance for you to agree the price you need from your buyer, in a constructive and robust way.
Learn from ex-retail buyers
Our one-day workshop is delivered by former supermarket senior buyers turned management consultants, Ged Futter and David Miles of The Retail Mind. They have worked on both sides of the negotiating table.
It is highly interactive, focusing on real-life examples and tried and tested processes.
It will give you the skills to build and maintain strong, constructive relationships with your buyer and communicate in a way that delivers messages clearly and consistently.
“Ged and David are using their expertise to help suppliers navigate buyers’ tricks of the trade,” NFU horticulture and potatoes adviser Christine McDowell says. “The training is based on the premise that this isn’t a negotiation. If you say you need a 7% uplift in cost price, then it’s 7%, not 6.5%.”
“The best £300 I ever spent.”
“Absolutely five star.”
“I asked my buyer for an increase and the reaction was exactly how David and Ged said it would be. They had a tantrum, but ultimately they gave me what I needed.”
During the workshop, you'll have the opportunity to role-play the process of having the discussion with your buyer, complete with the typical responses you may receive from retailers.
Keeping calm and learning how to reframe the discussion towards the key objective is central. You'll be taught to develop soft language skills and body language awareness to give yourself the best chance of success.
Finally, we'll test your negotiation skills in a pressurised situation so you can practice how to react when a deal needs to be done and is not forthcoming.