Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc. – Purchasing

Since 1995, Robert Benedict has trained additional trainers to implement his various negotiating seminars. Each trainer selected has extensive background negotiating from either the purchasing or sales side (or both). 

ROBERT Benedict

President and Founder of Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc.

bobRobert M. Benedict began teaching negotiations in 1984. Since then, he has personally taught his Real World Negotiating™ Seminar and related courses to over 35,000 purchasing, engineering, sales, marketing, and information systems professionals for some of the world's largest corporations.

He has also trained other trainers to implement his negotiating seminars, and they now serve as consultants for Benedict Negotiating Seminars, teaching his course not only in North America, but also in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Australia.

Benedict is also the author of the How To Deal With Back Door Selling workshop that has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Polish, Italian, Mandarin and Portuguese – and the author of the seminar, Dealing With Single and Sole Source Suppliers – What To Do When They Play Win/Lose. Mr. Benedict recently published his latest book, The Negotiation is Won (or Lost) Before it Ever Starts.

He has received public recognition from the Jaycees in being named as one of Minnesota's Ten Outstanding Young Men and by the Sun Newspapers as metropolitan Man of the Year. He has also been covered nationally by the Reader's Digest and ABC-TV.

Mr. Benedict's background includes being elected mayor of Minnesota's fourth largest city (Bloomington) at age 23. Two years later he was re-elected by the largest majority in the city's history. At age 26, he was elected as one of the youngest members of the Minnesota State Senate.

After not seeking re-election, Benedict was named at age 31 as Vice President and Division General Manager at National Computer Systems, where he served for 2½ years. Today he focuses his energies and expertise, as he has for over 40 years, on the teaching of negotiation skills, while serving as President of Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc.


Mike Lee

Trainer for Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc.

mikeMike Lee has been teaching BNS' Negotiating Seminars since 2000 and has conducted in-house training for such companies as Honeywell, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Bombardier, Merck, Bausch & Lomb, Raytheon, Georgia Pacific, Andersen Windows, Eaton, Delphi Automotive, Aetna, Baxter, Sharpe & Dohme, Novartis, CIBA Vision, Fischer Controls, Smurfit-Stone, Axcelis Technologies, Cessna Aircraft, Eastman Kodak, Koch Industries, Shaw Communications, Meggitt, and many others.

Mike is also a trainer for Benedict's How to Deal With Back Door Selling and Loose Lips Sink Companies! workshops and conducts BNS seminars in Europe and Asia as well as North America.

Previous to teaching Benedict's Negotiating Seminars, Mr. Lee spent 15 years in Sales and Account Management working with clients nationwide.

As an independent consultant, Mr. Lee is president of his own company, JAG Diversified Enterprises Inc.


Joe Rice

Trainer for Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc.

joeDuring the last 24 years, Joe Rice has taught BNS' How to Deal With Back Door Selling workshop to over 3000 people at such companies as Medtronic, Lockheed Martin, GM University, Allison Transmission, Sherwin Williams, Constellation Energy, Smuckers, Ingersoll-Rand, Southern California Edison and Publix Supermarkets (where he served as Director of Indirect Procurement).

Mr. Rice has over 32 years in the purchasing arena, starting as an equipment buyer and working his way up to the Director level of one of the largest supermarket chains in the country. He has also served as a project and program manager.

That background has served Joe well as he has conducted BNS' Real World Negotiating™ Seminar at such companies as Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Delphi Automotive, General Motors, Federal Mogul, Edward Jones, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Freescale and Arizona Chemical.

With a Bachelor's degree in the Social Sciences, a Masters in Organizational Management and a lifetime CPM certification, Joe brings a wealth of education and "hands on" knowledge to the training of negotiating skills.

Joe owns TJ Consulting of Lakeland, Inc., specializing in delivery of real world skills to buyers, sellers and technical professionals.


Larry Weckbaugh

Trainer for Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc.

paulLarry Weckbaugh is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (1975) and a veteran of the Nuclear Surface Navy.

Mr. Weckbaugh spent 34 years in the utilities industry with the last 5 years as Executive Director of Supply Chain for Constellation Energy. During those 5 years, Constellation trained all of their supply chain professionals “from the top down” in the BNS Negotiating process, using multiple sessions of BNS’:

How to Strategically Prepare for Any Negotiation
Real World Negotiating (How to Strategically Conduct Any Negotiation)
How to Stop Back Door Selling

According to Mr. Weckbaugh, “BNS helped our company save in excess of $100 million with its highly effective process and readily useable negotiating skills. I was impressed to the point that upon retirement, I joined BNS as a trainer and consultant to help other companies achieve similar results.”

Larry is President of LL Weckbaugh LLC, and has worked with BNS to deliver training at such companies as MillerCoors, Rockwell Collins and Parker Hannifin.


Jon Egen

Trainer for Benedict Negotiating Seminars, Inc.

jonJon Egen has served as the Corporate Director for Global Sourcing and Strategic Relationships for Honeywell International, Corporate Director of Supply Chain and Commodity Management for Ducommun and Director of Supply Chain for Simula (now a part of BAE Systems). Mr. Egen’s experience also includes supply chain leadership positions at companies in the Defense, Finance, and Medical Equipment industries.

Jon has taken millions of dollars in cost out of the supply chain in a broad spectrum of full-time functional assignments and consulting engagements in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China and Central/Eastern Europe across many different industries and companies. He thoroughly understands the supply chain, and the impact that it can have on the bottom line.

Jon holds a Supply Chain Management degree from Arizona State University, and is a decorated retired Army Supply Chain officer. He is a Certified Purchasing Manager, and a Six Sigma Black Belt certified in Supply Chain.