Should a buyer use closed questions in a negotiation?
Correct Answer: A
Asking questions the right way is both an art and a science. Ask the question the wrong way, and the other negotiator might act like a turtle, becoming defensive and withdrawing into their shell. Ask the question the right way, and the other negotiator might "spill the beans.". Closed Questions: How and when to use them? Closed questions are those thatrequire a short and focused answer, and are especially helpful in the beginning stages of the negotiation to encourage interaction. They can be used to clarify a point, or to reconfirm certain facts. For example, you can use a closed question to confirm the amount of units the company can produce in a week, or to clarify that what they are really saying is that they don't feel comfortable outsourcing their accounts to India. Most closed questions only require a simple "yes" or "no" response, so there reallyisn't much room for misinterpretation - great for finding out where both you and they stand.
Question 17
Which of the following are tools that help procurement visualise cost breakdowns of products and services purchased from supplier? 1. Spend candlesticks 2. Spend tree 3. Aggregate expenditure model 4. Spendwaterfall
Correct Answer: A
Understanding where and with whom your supplier spends their money, or understanding the 'cost breakdowns' or 'price build-up' of the goods andservices you purchase from the supplier, will help you know where and when they can offer price concessions. Cost information can be expressed with more impact through graphs that can be created using Excel and PowerPoint or other softwares. There are two commonly used models known as 'spend waterfall' and 'spend tree'. Spend waterfall shows the build-up of costs, while the spend tree shows all the spends that an organisation makes. There is no graph known as 'spend candlesticks'. Candlestick chart is astyle of financial chart used to describe price movements of a security, derivative, or currency. The aggregate expenditure model is a method of calculating GDP. The aggregate expenditure model focuses on the relationships between production (GDP) and planned spending: GDP = planned spending = consumption + investment + government purchases + net exports.
Question 18
Which of the following are most likely to be characteristics of a perfectly competitive market? Select TWO that apply
Correct Answer: B,D
Explanation A perfectly competitive market is one with the following features: - There are many firms producing identical or very similar (homogeneous) goods or services - There are no barriers toentry to the market or exit from the market - anyone can enter or leave easily - Both producers and customers have perfect knowledge of the market place, prices, costs of production and influences on demand and supply Under these conditions, the price andquantity will always tend toward equilibrium as any producer that sets a price above equilibrium will not sell anything at all, and any producer that sets a price below a equilibrium will obtain 100% market share in theory. The demand curve is perfectly elastic, which means that it will be horizontal. In a perfectly competitive market, it is difficult to increase profits through pricing, and suppliers instead must focus on their cost structure. As these conditions imply, there are few if any examples of perfectly competitive market. LO 2, AC 2.2
Question 19
An organisation is developing the specification for a capital purchase project. An important stakeholder has doubt on the draft specification. The buyer invites him to the product function meetings. In these meeting the attendees can raise their concerns, the specification development team takes in all the concerns and adjusts the specification accordingly. What kind of technique is the specification development team using?
Correct Answer: C
In the scenario, anyone who has concerns can join a meeting to raise their thoughts. The project team takes the stakeholders' ideas into account. This isknown as coalition: A group of people or organisations come together and work collaboratively to achieve some goals. Specifically in this scenario, the goal is creating a high-quality and unified specification for an important project.
Question 20
According to Fiona Dent and Mike Brent, which of the following are characteristics of Push approach? Select TWO that apply.
Correct Answer: B,E
According to the book 'Influencing: Skills and techniques for business success' by Fiona Dent and Mike Brent, there are two major influencing styles. Push tends to be directive. It tells, and is clear and resolute, but needs to be employed in situations where firmness is required because of difficulties that exist or weakness is evident. Pull is more participatory and collaborative. It seeks to incorporate everyone's perspective. It can appear wishy-washy if not skilfully employed. That approach should be followed which is most likely to secure commitment and not mere compliance. The two divisions can be further divided into four style categories: directive; persuasive reasoning; collaborative - team oriented, people oriented to inspire them with a vision. The directive style relies on your expertise and reputation being respected by others, and where there really does seem to be one answer. It is "I" driven whereas persuasive reasoning is more "we" and issue driven. Directive styles can make the user appear as "a bull in a china shop"; persuasive reasoning can be portrayed as tough guy. Collaborative influencing takes the "we" element further and seeks to mobilise everyone's ideas in a journey of discovery. It may have the flavour of "I'm your best friend", which may not go down too well. Visioning style is concerned to stir people's emotions in support of achieving an objective. This last one has been used by demagogues to stir people's hearts and minds for evil purposes as well as good. A useful table offers the benefits, problems, words and body language associated with each style along with advice on when to use and when to avoid each. Cases and exercises illustrate these styles. Empathy comes in for extended treatment with the definition of "standing in the other's shoes". This does not necessarily happen just intuitively, and therefore before a specific influencing effort there should bean intense effort to think about the other person or persons and to sense what it might feel like to be them - their hopes, fears, concerns, what turns them on, what turns them off, where are they coming from.
