Commercial negotiation has been with us for a long time, some accounts going as far back as when ships first sailed to China to buy silk and spices. In the pre-Industrial Revolution era the small scale of manufacturing operations meant that the entrepreneurs had to be skilled in everything including the purchasing of raw materials. If entrepreneurs were able to determine the quality of the inputs and, at the same time negotiate a price to minimize the average cost of inputs, the greater the demand for their product and the higher the profit margin. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and large scale production there was a role for purchasing agents. In this period negotiation focusing on quality, delivery, and service ‘‘as industrial sellers customarily set prices at or near cost plus 10%.’’[1] The focus of negotiation shifted in the 1930s when sales people were granted the authority to set price at any level. Today, negotiation focuses solely on securing the best possible price