Pitching and Negotiating Skills for Sustainable Competitive Edge

Pitching and
negotiating skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Determining what is negotiation, why it occurs and key stakeholders in negotiation
process.........................................................................................................................................1
P2. Key steps along with information required for negotiation along with generating deals.....2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Explaining RFP process along with relevant types of documentation required....................4
P4. Explaining contractual process along with the ways relevant documentation is managed
and monitored..............................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. Developing appropriate pitch applying key principles which achieve sustainable
competitive edge..........................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Assessing potential outcomes of pitch..................................................................................8
P7. Determining the ways organisations fulfils obligations from pitch, identification of
potential issues which can occur..................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In the competitive world, skills associated with pitching and negotiating are crucial to
manage and run business or remaining part of dynamic addition to innovative workforce.
Negotiation is mentioned to a dialogue, interaction, process and strategic discussion among
entities or people who compromise for agreeing on matters related to mutual interest at the time
of optimising individual utilities (Andrews, 2016). Similarly, pitching refers to presentation
given by people to either individual investor or group of investors for the purpose of securing
funds and resources requires for making profits and business sustainability. To understand about
pitching and negotiating skills, Walmart is considered which is one of world’s largest retailer
that sells electronics, jewellery, grocery and other essential household products. It has approx 2.2
million employees working at global market.
The present report evaluates context of negotiation, identifies required information for
preparing for negotiation, manage documents associated with tenders and contracts. It also
develops a pitch for attaining sustainable competitive edge and assesses outcomes of negotiation
and pitch for company.
TASK 1
P1. Determining what is negotiation, why it occurs and key stakeholders in negotiation process
Definition of negotiation
Negotiation is defined to strategic discussion which resolves issues in effective manner
that parties find acceptable. In other words, it is said to an open process wherein individuals or
companies work together in order to formulate agreements related to issues of dispute. In case
with Walmart, the aim of negotiation is to generate sales demand, networking opportunities and
securing more effective and favourable deals. Through negotiation, the entity achieved success in
increasing organisational profits through reducing cost price of its offerings, enhancing
relationship and increasing footfalls in market (Baird, 2016).
Reasons for occurrence of negotiation
In every business, negotiation occurs as it is crucial element which comes in various
agreement areas including reduction of debts, improving contractual conductions, gaining better
business deals and lowering sales price of product. As per the case study of Walmart, following
reasons are identified due to which negotiation occurs:
1

 Fixing price and quantity of offerings: In Walmart, the main reason of occurrence of
negotiation is to decision making of the company for fixing prices along with quantity of
groceries or other commodities with suppliers along with distributors with the hope of
purchase products at less prices and selling it on higher prices which increases business
profits.
 Renewing deals with entities: When business is planning to renew its deals with other
entities in the market then negation occurs (Dinnar and Susskind, 2018). In context to
Waitrose, negotiation occurred so to renew deals with various companies such as Frey
Farms, P&G etc in which provide commodities for selling in Walmart chain. It also made
the relationships between these entities stronger.
Key stakeholders in negotiation
In negotiation process, various people are involved who have huge knowledge about
commodities that they are dealing addition to have effective interpersonal skills for grabbing
most profitable deals for business. In case with Walmart, following are the stakeholders involved
in negotiation:
 Waitrose top executives: In context to Walmart, the top executives are the stakeholders
which are involved in negotiation process for sharing relevant information with internal
people to help them in understanding their roles and responsibility in dealing.
 Suppliers: In the negotiation process of Walmart, suppliers are also involved for
enhancing their relations and position with the entities. They builds proximities, shares
information, solves problems for resource procuring and helps in managing pricing issues
(Hardin, Zakrajsek and Gaston, 2015).
 Other people: These are investors, government, employees, mediator and shareholder
representatives that are also involved in negation process of company.
P2. Key steps along with information required for negotiation along with generating deals
Negotiation is the way or process to avoid arguing as well as coming to a contractual
agreement wherein both parties and companies feels satisfied. While various approaches are
there for negotiation tactics, the common steps of negotiation and making deals adopted by
operational manager of Walmart are as follows:
2