Explanation
All one-to-one commercial negotiations between a specific purchaser and a specific supplier take place within an industrial market and a larger business environment characterised by multiple forces which both parties typically have little control over. STEEPLE framework highlights the 6 main external influences on a business:
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LO 1, AC 1.3

Explanation
According to Paul Steele's 'The Seller's Perspective', customer can be classified into 4 categories as below:
To increase theleverage in negotiation, buyer may increase its attractiveness and/or increase spend value. In this scenario, the buyer is already attractive to supplier as it always pays on-time, but the spend is still low. So to have greater leverage, the buyer has toincrease its spend volume by spend concentration. Spend concentration may take many forms as following:
- Vendor base reduction
- Volume pooling
- Volume redistribution
- Volume consolidation across categories
- Standardisation and harmonisation of specifications
- Forming purchasing consortia
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LO 1, AC 1.3

Explanation
Many commercial negotiations could be considered routine or just not worth the investment for buyers, and using the phone can make more sense and can be more immediate.
LO 2, AC 2.4

A business negotiation agenda is a formal agreed upon list of goals to be achieved or items to be discussed in a particular order during a meeting or negotiation. Agendascan be formal and obvious, or informal and subtle in negotiations.
The agenda is one of the main structural elements of negotiation, in addition to such questions as site, identification of participants, and elements of timing. Together, they answer the who, what, when, and where questions. As with other aspects of negotiation, the agenda can be used either manipulatively to enhance leverage or to improve the prospects for agreement and the possibilities for mutual gain. In most cases, it will be used bothways, reflecting the nature of negotiation as a "mixed-motive" situation.
Although it can be instrumental to [research] volunteer as a sole source to write the agenda, in most cases it becomes a joint activity to construct a consensual basis for subsequent negotiation. In these situations, agenda-building becomes one of the pre-negotiation activities that set the tone for the relationship (Saunders,
1985). In other situations, the parties may engage in actual negotiation without a formal or written agenda.When this occurs, the risks and uncertainties may be high but the party who appreciates the importance of the informal agenda has a tremendous advantage.
Whether one plans it or not, during the course of negotiation the parties will discuss a finite set of issues in some sequence and from a particular perceptual framework. Consciousness of the universality and centrality of the agenda is prerequisite to guiding negotiation to a successful conclusion.

Direct costs are those costs of a product/service directly attributable/traceable to its production. Examples of direct costsincluding the following:
Materials and services bought-in: In steel manufacturer, raw materials are iron ores, scrap metal, coals, etc Labour or wages: money paid to staff for the work involved in producing the product.
Other expenses: other charges incurred that can be specifically attributed to a particular product, batch or service