Some other things that you might do would be to:

. Talk about what is effecting pricing or availability

. Talk about your new products, innovations, etc.

. Be sure that you have circulated to them any positive press about your company.
. And perhaps above all else, provide excellent service. Remember, you are trying to put yourself in a more favorable negotiating position and the way in which you handle the account on a day to day basis will have a major impact on that. If the account is handled well and the customer is happy, you will have provided yourself with a good negotiating context. If delivery is terrible, and service is bad, expect the customer to use that as ammunition during the next negotiation.

Another thing that you need to keep in mind as you go from account to account is that many, many customers set context and create expectations, frequently in much the same way.

Unfortunately, the cumulative impact of all of the customers that you see who say such things may have a long-term effect on your ability to negotiate better deals. If you see four, five or six customers a day, and some or all of them are sayings things like those mentioned above, you may begin to believe that its all true. If one customer did it over and over again, we would call it the broken record tactic. But when lots of people are doing it, unbeknownst to each other, its impact may subtly begin to affect the way that we think. If you hear something often enough, you may begin to believe it.

The only way to break out of this cycle is to take a look, over time, at the kinds of things that people are saying to you. This will then create a pattern, and once you see the pattern, you'll be better able to resist the potential negative impact.

In Activity V, you will be looking at the calls that you make during the week and recording the comments that customers make to you that may have an impact on the context of the negotiation and on your expectations. By recording these comments during the week's time, you will have an opportunity to see if there are any patterns and to analyze what impact the cumulative weight of such statements is having on you and your ability to negotiate effectively.