Negotiation and Pitching Skills Report: Business Strategies for M&S

This report examines the crucial role of negotiation and pitching skills in business, using Marks and Spencer as a case study. It delves into the negotiation process, identifying key stakeholders such as employees and suppliers, and the rationale behind negotiation strategies aimed at achieving mutual consent. The report outlines the five steps of the negotiation process: preparing and planning, term on ground rules, justification and clarification, problem-solving and bargaining, and concluding and execution, while also acknowledging potential drawbacks. It further explains the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, including the documentation required, and details the contractual process, emphasizing documentation management and monitoring. The report then explores effective pitching strategies, applying Porter's generic model to M&S, focusing on cost leadership and differentiation. Finally, it discusses the outcomes of pitching and the fulfillment of obligations, highlighting how these skills are vital for business success.

PITCHING AND
NEGOTIATION SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Negotiation and key stakeholders associated with this process.............................................1
P2 Key steps and information required for negotiating and general deals.................................1
P3 Explain the RFP process and the relevant types of documentation required. .......................3
P4 Explain the contractual process and how relevant documentation is managed and
monitored. ..................................................................................................................................4
P5 Appropriate pitch by applying key principles........................................................................5
P6 Outcomes of pitch..................................................................................................................5
P7 Fulfilling obligation of pitch..................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Negotiating and pitching skills plays prominent role in business bas it helps in
functioning in interest of all the stakeholder. The report will discuss about stakeholders involved
in negotiation process of Mark and Spencer which will be conducted by manager. Marks and
Spencer I one of the leading retail store of UK and is especially deals with apparels. Thus, it will
identify Request For Proposal (RFP) process and pitching principles followed by and enterprise.
P1 Negotiation and key stakeholders associated with this process
Negotiation is process of agreeing to same agreement with mutual consent. It is important
for the business person to ensure that every decision is taken on one common interest. In order to
seek effective negotiation the foremost responsibility of management is to involve key
stakeholders for discussion and consultation for reaching agreement (Goldberg and et.al., 2014).
In this process, management aims at considering satisfaction of each and every individual who
are related to operations and success of departmental store. The manager of departmental store
will focus on negotiating with stakeholders of firm in order to maintain sustainability of
enterprise. Further, in this the key stakeholders of store who will be involved in negotiation
process are employee because these are the individuals who plays a significant role in managing
all organisational function. It is important for the management to seek consent of employee on
the changes. The functions which are managed by employees are related to consumer centric and
therefore concerning employee of store is the foremost responsibility to manager. Apart from
employee, manager will focus on negotiating with suppliers of store because these are individual
who supply raw material and goods for further seeing on minimal price and therefore satisfying
needs of suppliers by negotiating helps in gaining their trust for the enterprise which plays an
important role in stabilising business operations.
Rationale for negotiation process
The motive behind implementing use of negotiation process by manager of firm is to
make stakeholders agree on one common interest with mutual consent (Lewicki and et.al.,
2011). The company implements the use of step wise process of negotiation because it helps in
making system systematic and considering all the necessary and valid details.
P2 Key steps and information required for negotiating and general deals.
When negotiating the management of store will focus on implementing key steps of
negotiation process as it helps the person in managing systematic process by considering needs
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and wants of every stakeholder who is concerned with negotiating and general deals of firm. The
five steps of negotiation process which will be considered by management of Marks and Spencer
are as follows:
 Preparing and planning: In this all the parties gets involved who are concerned with
negotiation. It is important for the stakeholders to be present during planning in order to
keep their interest forward (Crump, 2011). Further, in this step the parties seeks for the
reason of negotiation on one topic. The necessary information assist manager in adding
validity to claims.
 Term on Ground Rules: In this the manager of company focuses on detailing process
like place of negotiation process, time, issues which will be discussed and on which
negotiation will be done. Moreover, it is the responsibility of manager to ensure a
backup plan in case negotiation do not occur in interest all stakeholders.
 Justification and Clarification: This is confrontational step in which the parties
involved in negotiation process clarify, amplify and justify real demand which are points
on which negotiation will take place. In this step parties discuss on their points and seek
for the support.
 Problem Solving and Bargaining: It is concession on one agreement where parties of
Marks and Spencer discusses on every point and outline one conclusion which is in
interest every individual related to organisation functions. It is important for the parties
to bargain because during negotiation process of company, bargaining is the only
practice which can help in making decision on mutual consent. Concluding and Execution: This is the last phase of negotiation process in which the
manager outlines one common solution which is in interest of every stakeholders and
focuses on implementing it by signing an agreement.
Critical evaluation of steps of negotiation process
Negotiation process aims at setting blue print to conduct discussion and is effective
because it aims at seeking view points of all people which are related to business operations.
However, the process impacts trust and interpersonal relationship of management and employees
which hampers work productivity (Jun and Kyle, 2011). Moreover, when conducting stepwise
process of discussion, the management is bound to follow all the steps and have no way of
altering negotiation plans.
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P3 Explain the RFP process and the relevant types of documentation required.
A request for proposal is the document which is used for seeking proposals, which are
usually made from binding process, or by an organization that are interested in acquisition of the
any kind of precious assets or services to prominent suppliers in order to submit business
proposals. This whole process is based upon the time period of approximately three months. It
can take a lot longer time than this if the process of negotiation is not conducted fluently. In
general words RFP(request for proposal) is the type of document which is used by the firms in
order to seek the proposals. Such documents are used when the requirements are regarding the
technical experiences or any other kind of the specialized capabilities, or the product regarding
which the request has been made does not exist and there is a lot of research and development is
required for the requested product, in such cases RFP is important (Corken, 2016).
RFP is the request made by the companies who are interested in purchasing some special
kind of products and services. The general steps involved in the process of RFP:
RFP Release: The RFP must get released as soon as possible, in order to initiate the process.
Proposal Deadline: The appropriate time must be given to the agencies so that they can put
together all the proposals they have been received.
Bidder's Conference: Appropriate time must be given in order to publicize the RFP and to gain
information regarding the Bidder's conference to the core bidders.
Technical Review of Proposals: This should be initiated just after the proposals are due and
should a lot a enough amount of the time to staff so that they can conduct the proper technical
review.
Written Review of Proposals: This is depend upon the structure of the written review that how
much time it is going to take, it is very important to come up with suitable dates for the written
reviews.
Oral Presentation: The agencies required time to prepare the oral presentation after conducting
technical and written review regarding work.
Final Agency Selection: By the end of the oral presentation, the final review has been made
regarding the winning agency.
Final Contract Signed: This depends upon the the amount of information which are related to
the compensation and the scope of work, it also depends upon the process of negotiation within
the agencies (Hopmann, , 2014).
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P4 Explain the contractual process and how relevant documentation is managed and monitored.
It is the process of creating and managing the process of the contract in order to analyze
and execute operating and financing performance of the organization, while on the other hand it
also helps in reducing financial risks that are present within the organization. The man
significance of this process is to ensure that each and every individual of the organizations like
Marks and Spencer , is conducting there work in the most prominent manner. The contractual
process revolves around the activities and practices which ensure that contract is being accepted
and performing in the systematic manner. The main objective of the contractual process is to
make sure that each party fulfills its roles and objectives in a most effective manner.
he contractual process is based on five major steps: Regulating the contract Collecting required data and information Designating Negotiator Analysing the process of contract
 Signing the contract
Documentation of the contract is the legal procedure which is based on certain rules and
regulation regulated by the legislation. The contract must contain all the relevant information
about the organisation, it should also contain all the legal policies and structures in order to
ensure the certified business practices. Contract is considered as a standard document which is
used to protect the legal rights of all the parties involved and also to avoid the future disputed
and conflicts among the involved persons. Before documenting the contract all the required legal
work must be accomplished by the companies in order to ensure the smooth working process.
The documents must be signed by the authorised persons in order to make them authenticated.
The negotiation process takes place within the documentation of the contract should be highly
confidential and only authorised personnel must have authorisation to get involved in between
the process, this is to maintain the secrecy of the terms and polices of the firm. The last step
involved in the documentation of the contract is signing the contract, so that firms can effectively
conduct there business operations (Erlingsdóttir, 2015).
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P5 Appropriate pitch by applying key principles
Strategies for gaining competitive advantage over other have been developed, in the
context of M&S, through undertaking porter’s generic model. Hence, according to such model
for gaining competitive advantage M&S will make focus on the aspects of cost leadership and
differentiation. The rationale behind the adoption of such strategy is to enhance more customers
by influencing their purchasing decisions. Moreover, after recessionary session customers
become price conscious in nature and now lays focus on purchasing products or services from
the retailer that maintains lower price level. In addition to this, now several; options are available
to the customers in terms of retailers which offer quality products at suitable price level. In this
regard, M&S will lay focus on developing cost leadership within the industry through exploring
business operations. Moreover, expansion strategy will enable M&S to get high economies of
scale and thereby get cost benefits (Spring,2017).
In addition to this, M&S will focus on differentiating its offerings on the basis of quality
and uniqueness. Thus, for building distinct image in the mind of customers and provide them
high level of satisfaction company will make focus on improving quality of the products or
services through R&D. In addition to this, business unit will also make focus on offering
products as per their expectations. Hence, the above mentioned strategies assist M&S in
enhancing market share, customer base and profit margin to the significant level. Both the above
assessed strategies are highly significant in the context of M&S. Moreover, in the concerned
sector, quality, price and innovation is recognized as major aspects that closely impact customers
decision making. Hence, by placing emphasis on such aspects company would become able to
get desired level of profit margin (Vasudevan,2014).
P6 Outcomes of pitch
The outcomes of pitch are quite relevant to business. This means that pitching is done by
verbally delivering plan in effective way. Marks and Spencer provides pitching to its
shareholders so that they may be provided with plan of business in the best possible way. The
potential outcome of pitch is that investors can easily pass deal in effective manner and company
may be able to perform well. This is quite beneficial for business. Investors are informed about
the plan of company and as such, their approval can be obtained quite effectually. Interaction
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with shareholders are made in the best possible way. Thus, funds can be raised with much ease
by interacting with shareholders.
Furthermore, investors look for whether products passes through various stages and as
such, they are in stake for better prospectus of company. Cost leadership plays important role in
pitching and as such, Marks and Spencer are required to provide effective oral presentation to
investors in order to carry out the process of pitching in effective way. Pitching by leaders of
organisation will help investors to understand plan of business in the best possible way and as
such, interest of them can be gathered quite effectively (Lantos, 2015).
Another possible outcome of pitch is that leaders provide effective plan of business and
as such, shareholders are able to understand their needs in a better way. In addition to this, more
investment can may be done by them and requirements of funds can be fulfilled quite easily.
These outcomes are get by Marks and Spencer to share plan with investors and raise more funds
in effective way for carrying out daily tasks in effective way.
P7 Fulfilling obligation of pitch
There can be various issues that can be raised from pitch. In relation to this, investors
analsyes plan of departmental store and as such, pitching can inculcate issues to organisation
which can affect competency of Marks and Spencer. Competitive advantage is required to be
gained and organisation should overcome issues for attaining competency in the best possible
way. This will initiate issues such as customers will think that company is following cost
leadership policy and as such, goods provided by it are not of good quality. Thus, it is
recommended to organisation that it should use pitching so that customers may be provided by
valuable information and as such, company can attain competitive advantage in the best possible
way.
Cost leadership may incur profits to company in effective way and as such, it can earn
profits in effectual manner. In contrary to this, lower prices of goods and services will get low
profits to company but it will help company to initiate healthy profits in the long run. Another
issue that can be raised is that product differentiation (Philip, 2014). It is required that business
should impart differentiated products in order to gain competitive advantage. But this leads to
incur more expenditures by the organisation so that demands can be fulfilled of potential
customers. This will lead to handle more costs as needs of customers changes quite frequently.
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This will inject more expenses to organisation and as such, revenue will lower down profits of
organisation. In contrary to this, product differentiation will help business to expand operations
in the best possible way. Customer base will be enhanced and company may be able to get
competitive advantage in effective way. Moreover, through negotiating will help business to
attain competency quite effectually.
CONCLUSION
By summing up this report, it has been articulated that negotiation process is highly
prominent in the context of M&S. Through undertaking negotiation strategy or process M&S can
take suitable as well as profitable decision. Besides this, it can be inferred from the evaluation
that strategic negotiation process makes significant contribution in the profitable deals. Further, it
has been articulated that by placing emphasis on cost leadership and differentiation M&S can
build and sustain competitive edge over others. It can be summarized from the report that
developing competent plan M&S can achieve its goals and objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Corken, R., 2016. Good negotiation and land-use planning: the status of negotiation in the NSW.
planning profession. Australian Planner. 53(3). pp.201-210.
Crump, L., 2011. Negotiation process and negotiation context. International Negotiation. 16(2).
pp.197-227.
Erlingsdóttir, G., 2015. When patient empowerment encounters professional autonomy: The
conflict and negotiation process of inscribing an eHealth service. Scandinavian journal
of public administration. 19(2). pp.27-48.
Goldberg, S.B. and et.al., 2014. Dispute resolution: Negotiation, mediation and other processes.
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Hopmann, P.T., 2014. 2 The verification debate and its effects on the negotiation process.
Banning the Bang or the Bomb?: Negotiating the Nuclear Test Ban Regime. 14(5). p.32.
Jun, J. and Kyle, G.T., 2011. Understanding the role of identity in the constraint negotiation
process. Leisure Sciences. 33(4). pp.309-331.
Lantos, G. P., 2015. Consumer behavior in action: Real-life applications for marketing
managers.
Lewicki, R.J. and et.al., 2011. Essentials of negotiation. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Philip, K., 2014. Marketing Essentials. A brief course: Translated from
English. Moscow:“Williams” Publishing House. 496.
Spring, M.,2017. Creating the competitive edge: A new relationship between operations
management and industrial policy. Journal of Operations Management. 49. pp.6-19.
Vasudevan, M,2014. A study on the customer satisfaction towards the retail marketing mix
offered by the select organised multi brand retail outlets with special reference to
Coimbatore city. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering. 4(11). p.80.
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