During the Sales and Negotiation class, March 1st, MSc International Marketing students were taught by Mrs Isabelle Dreuille, CEO and international consultant at CowinR and professor on the Paris campus.  

With her extensive experience in international purchasing, Mrs. Dreuille gave students insight into the purchasing process.

Dreuille started the class by explaining the key steps in the purchasing process and how to avoid traps when dealing with buyers.

In addition to this, she shared her various experiences when purchasing in the international context. She provided examples to demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in negotiation as well as some cultural models to understand intercultural issues.

For example: in the case of China, avoid the use of closed questions; in India use neutral communication, in the Middle East ask for agenda validation before traveling, and in Germany do not interrupt people.

Dreuille highlighted the main factors that determine efficient purchasing: time, quality and performance; she also explained the best methods for evaluating them.

Following with the purchasing process, Dreuille explained the different departments and positions involved in this process. Some of the people to whom a purchasing manager could rely on are: financial manager, technical manager, sales manager and quality manager.

Another subject of interest for the Marketing students was about purchasing marketing as part of the purchasing process. This marketing area provides managers with a segmentation of the purchase portfolio, a supply and demand analysis, the development of procurement strategies and internal and external action plans.

At the end of the session Professor Dreuille gave students some recommendations to increase their bargaining power, in addition to some tools for the pre-selection of suppliers, the multiple criteria decision model and an overview of the contrast between the methodological versus psychological perspective of a negotiation.

Through this class students could not only understand how to perform when playing the role the buyer but also how to react when being the seller.