Volatile commodity prices, disrupted supply chains and increasing pressure on margins are putting purchasing departments under pressure. In this environment, strategic price negotiations are the key to reducing costs and at the same time developing supplier relationships on an equal footing.

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In the webinar, Daniel Borbelj (Head of Procurement at RELINE) and Kristina Ulrich (Head of Customer Development at Tacto) show how RELINE achieves measurable success with data-based negotiation processes - and why digital tools such as Tacto play a decisive role in this.

Initial situation: High effort, little structure

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Before using Tacto, price negotiations at RELINE were characterized by manual Excel evaluations, inconsistent data availability and a high use of resources.

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The biggest challenges included

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• Complex, non-standardized preparation for monthly price discussions

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• Lack of index connection and cost transparency

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• No comparability of historical price trends

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• Low data availability for well-founded argumentation

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Solution approach: Digital negotiation - efficient, objective, successful

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With Tacto, RELINE restructured the entire negotiation process - from preparation to follow-up:

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• Solid database
  Tacto automatically aggregates all relevant data - purchasing volumes, delivery performance, price trends - and reduces preparation to less than an hour.

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• Cost models & index logic
  Material and energy costs can be linked to price indices in order to identify deviations between market and offer prices. This creates an objective basis for price discussions and enables RELINE to question implausible claims on the basis of facts.

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• Transparent communication
  With clear KPIs and negotiation strategies - such as the BATNA approach or game theory models - it is possible to strike a balance between reducing costs and working together as partners.

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• Central follow-up
  Discussion results, price escalation clauses and follow-up actions are documented directly in the system - for sustainable knowledge retention and continuous optimization.

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"I only know the world of procurement with Tacto - and to be honest, I can hardly imagine it without it." - Daniel Borbelj, Head of Procurement at RELINE

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Outlook: How AI will fundamentally change price negotiations

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The next step? AI-supported negotiations. In the webinar, Daniel and Kristina discuss how price negotiations are evolving thanks to intelligent assistants such as Tacto Intelligence:

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• Automated argumentation aids
  Suggestions for counterarguments, objections and price structures
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• Anomaly detection
  AI recognizes conspicuous price trends and indicates the need for action
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• Reverse auctions & negotiation programs
  More competition and transparency for standard items
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• Out-of-the-box approaches
  Strategic projects instead of isolated individual negotiations

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AI supports. People make the decisions. Tacto provides the database.

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Conclusion: Price negotiations as a strategic lever in Procurement

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RELINE shows how SMEs can achieve real competitive advantages with digital solutions. Strategic price negotiations are not a buzzword, but a clear success factor - if they are based on data, structure and technology.

In the webinar, Daniel Borbelj from RELINE and Kristina Ulrich from Tacto will show how RELINE has professionalized the negotiation process through data-based preparation, index-supported cost models and structured follow-up - and thus realized significant savings. Supplemented by an outlook on AI-supported negotiations with Tacto Intelligence, the webinar offers concrete insights into how medium-sized purchasing departments can make their negotiation management future-proof and measurably successful.