Firstly I would like to thank you for sharing your professional experiences with the readers, being in the professional development business I hope you would be glad to know that my group members and me are analyzing this article as a case study for a negotiation skills course at our university in Dubai. I was wondering if you would have any additional relevant information that you don’t mind sharing.

s091117@ud.ac.ae

Best Regards
Yousr Abdul

I’m not even sure where to begin with this one. I have so many comments, I don’t think I can cover them all. But please allow me to try.

First . . . Walmart doesn’t ‘play’ with anyone. To imply there is a ‘key’ to dealing with Walmart is misleading. Anyone who has actually dealt with Walmart knows how it works: you give Walmart the price it wants, or they walk away. Period. Any first-year sales rookie can offer a lower price. It takes no particular skill, system, or series of training classes to do so.

Second . . . if you take a moment to do some searching, you will find dozens of articles written by the world’s best business publications that back this data up—as well as a handful of New York Times Best-Selling books. Downplaying Walmart’s actions by claiming they are simply trying to get the lowest price is like saying The Unibomber was just “struggling through a midlife crisis.”

Third . . . I’m not sure where you stand on the business ethics scale, but as I re-read the article, I find no less than six (6) unethical tactics:

1) Purposely leading companies to believe submission of their ‘best price’ is one of the last steps in the process, versus the first.
2) Purposely failing to mention that a buyer (or multiple buyers) will be doing the actual negotiating.
3) Claiming to possess extensive documentation that your price is too high, but refusing to share any of it.
4) Implying that a better discount is in your company’s long-term best interest, while refusing to discuss future business.
5) Aggressive and intimidating phone behavior.
6) Attempting, without permission or warning, to go around your company’s negotiator to their boss or supervisor—then painting them in a negative light.

With all of the above in mind, there is a small part of me that believes I might be looking at this incorrectly, so I’m going to make you an offer. Since you claim to know how to play at Walmart’s level, I will give you an opportunity to explain your Walmart negotiation strategy to this blog’s 10,000 monthly readers. You can either enter it as a comment to this post, or write a complete article and email it to me at eric@thesmallcompanyblog.com. If you have any advice for our readers, I can assure you that hundreds of people across the globe will benefit from your insight.

Thanks for writing.

- Eric -

Walmart’s tactics are very common in big business and the approach they used was completely ethical. Their tactics were not dirty or similar to a mafia-style shakedown. They simply tried to get the lowest price. Let’s face it, Walmart’s advertising consistently focuses on price so why would their purchasing habits be any different?

Regards,
Kelley

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