Institute of Business Administration

Negotiation Role Play Exercise - B2B Marketing Course

Preamble & Objectives:

The class will be divided into various groups. Based on a given brief, you will face another group
who will have another brief on the same situation. However, the objectives of the two groups will
not be totally congruent.

You will have a leader as well as some power brokers in your group and will have to negotiate your
way through the two meetings with the opposing party. Adequate preparation time will be given
to the groups prior to the official meetings. Remaining students will be used as evaluators to
form a group view on the performance.

This role play exercise will test the following so prepare accordingly:
Bargaining skills
B2B marketing knowledge,
Handling of high stress situations
Managing situational pressures
Time management
Group coordination and unity
Acceptance of leadership
Ability of influencing, persuasion, decision-making and leadership
Public speaking skills
May the better negotiating team win!
Before the exercise, following needs to be done:
1. Groups and the company you work for are assigned by instructor.
2. A detailed presentation with back-up material is provided for prior reading.
3. You will have time to prepare generally, scour the net, review the material provided
and read up on the companies you represent and face in a B2B scenario.
4. Appoint chairman of the DMU and assign designation.
5. Appoint expert on financial / operational matters and assign designation.
6. Appoint expert on legal issues and assign designation.
7. Appoint expert on marketing and commercial issues and assign designation.
8. Assume prior meetings have been held and the next two encounters are the final closure
meetings make or break!
9. Buyer groups (BAHL & PIA) to prepare official ppt presentations of not more than 15
minutes duration, to be presented in Session 5, in order to specify their requirements.
You can add, delete and amend whatever you feel appropriate.

On the day of the first final meeting (session 5):

10. At 6:00 pm you will have 15 minutes to prepare for the meeting in separate break-out
rooms.
11. 10 minutes for settling-in and formal introductions.
12. Buyer groups (BAHL & PIA, respectively) will have 15 minutes each to make their
pre-planned pitch to the seller groups.
 13. Seller groups (Symmetry & UBL, respectively) will be expected to ask pertinent,
intelligent and incisive questions of the sellers (15 mins). Similarly, buyers can also
pose questions for the sellers.
14. Remaining class will review the presentations as silent observers and make notes
against each participant.
15. Meeting will conclude with a final round scheduled for session 6.
16. Observers will mark their sheets and return them to the instructor (5 mins).

Before the final round, following needs to be done:

Seller groups to prepare official ppt presentations of not more than 15 minutes duration
(to be done at home later). pitching their bid for the final round, while buyer groups
will prepare for what to negotiate on in the next meeting.

On the day of the first final meeting (session 6):

17. You will be provided some special instructions from the CEO of your company which
(s)he prepared last night, based on informal but critical encounters (s)he had over the
last few evenings at a party. These will be handed at 6:00 pm titled Memorandum from
the CEO to the DMU.
18. You have 15 minutes to prepare for the meeting in separate break-out rooms, in light of
the new scenario.
19. Instructor will return your day 1 marking sheets to each observer.
20. 10 minutes for settling-in and greetings.
21. Remaining class will read the new instructions to the buyer and seller groups also.
22. Then the groups will encounter each other in the buyers premises (PIA and Bank AL
Habib respectively) i.e., IBA Main Campus.
23. Seller groups (Symmetry & UBL, respectively) will have 15 minutes each to make their
last minute amended pitches to the buyer groups.
24. The negotiations will last for 15 minutes and have to conclude with a result. Deal or no
deal!
25. The remaining class will observe the bargaining and mark each participant perform,
following the bell curve principle. Return the sheets based on both day results to the
instructor (5 mins).

General Rules:
26. Buyer and Seller groups will not share each others private Memorandum from the
CEO to the DMU.
27. From the day you get the company presentations, no private interaction between /
among buyer group members and seller group members on their scenarios. If caught,
you will be disqualified.
28. Both parties are expected to be civil, cordial and businesslike in their approach.
29. No personal comments, rudeness or scoring at the expense of others inadequacy as an
expert (in banking, aviation or digital media, as the case may be)
30. Grading students will be expected to demonstrate extreme neutrality and behave as true
professionals.
31. All material supplied is private and for educational purposes only. It has been
necessarily edited and tweaked for class usage. It should not be shared or quoted outside
class for any purpose except generally if you so desire.