ABSTRACT
The Sales Positioning Matrix is used as a negotiation preparation tool once an initial offer has been made by a seller. This is a comparative model that helps negotiators understand the relative strengths of weaknesses on one specific offer in comparison with competing bids. The Sales Positioning Matrix maps the relative merits of a bid on two key competing dimensions: price and quality. By positioning the selected offer in the central quadrant, all competing bids are plotted around the centre to highlight whether their prices and/or quality are better, the same or worse than the bid in question. The comparative price is easy to understand but in the context quality has a broad definition, referring to all of the non-price elements in an offer. Quality has been treated as a single component of the analysis, when in fact is an aggregation of several features – some of which will be more significant than others.
