Negotiation Managing conflict is an important skill that needs to be mastered in order for those in leadership positions to become successful. In the world of sales, ensuring delivery of quality product is paramount for maintaining competitive advantage within an industry. My organization of choice to examine conflict negotiations is a construction materials distributor company. This company sells tools, steel, fasteners and hardware to smaller retailers. In this incident, a delivery of tools is being delayed due to logistical issues by the company to the customer. The customer has been a loyal for many years and gives the company most of its business. A promise by the sales representative was broken due to transportation troubles stemming from the weather. As a result, the retailer lost a sale valued at approximately $10,000. The customer is trying to recoup this loss by demanding a refund and other compensations.

The distribution company broke a promise to this customer and, in my opinion, should be held responsible for some compensation to this customer. I support the customer in fully refunding the sales order, and am open to the idea of further compensation and other means of repayment...

At this point the negotiation was started. Before negotiations began however, certain preparations were taken in order to figure out what the best solution to the problems that would actually apply in this situation. The sales representative looked at the history of the customer because it was essential to realize how much business he had given us historically. This was what was at risk in terms of losing this customer by not appealing to his demands. Not to mention, bad word as well as good word spreads fast within any industry and keeping customers happy scenes he a primary responsibility for those wishing to be successful in keeping sales relationships.
The customer, realizing the loss of profit from an error that could not effectively been treated by anyone other than nature itself, was obviously frustrated at the situation. Emotions often dictate any conflict and it's important to keep emotions in control and use them to your advantage and not let them trick your mind into making a silly…