subject: Can I Negotiate My Shipping Prices? [print this page] If you're just automatically paying the price that your Houston messenger delivery service quotes you on every delivery, then you might be spending far more than you need to on your delivery services. The truth of the matter is that there is actually much more room for negotiation when it comes to shipping rates than most people realize. If you take the time to think about your options and open a dialogue with your courier company, you could be very happy with the savings that you find.
Many courier companies will be willing to have some flexibility on their rates if you try and negotiate with them. The first, and possibly the most important step, is to ask to speak to someone about negotiating your prices. If you do not, they will simply continue to charge you their base rates forever. You may have to speak to some kind of manager in order to speak with someone with the authority to change the posted rates.
When you're negotiating with a courier company, if you want to be successful, you should ideally have something to offer them. If you've got a big new shipping contract that you can award to the courier company, or if you can offer to make them your exclusive courier, you're going to stand a much better chance of getting a discount of some kind. The key to any successful negotiation is that both parties should have something to gain.
Another thing that you should keep in mind when trying to negotiate the shipping price that you're paying is the respective size of the companies in question. If you're a very small company, trying to negotiate a rate from a large courier might be futile. On the other hand, a small company might be willing to bend a little to keep every customer that they can. A larger company that is shipping all over the world might have a great deal of success negotiating with an international courier, because they will very much want to keep your business.
What you should be chasing after in your negotiation is a drop in the overall rate that the courier company charges you. There is no real point in trying to negotiate a discount on every single shipment you send, because the overall savings won't be worth the time you spend negotiating. A corporate discount that applies to all your shipments though, is every worthwhile.
by: Henry Davis
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