When Standard Advice Doesn't Cut It
Most negotiation training focuses on theory. Win-win scenarios. Building rapport. Finding common ground.
That stuff matters, sure. But when you're sitting across from someone who holds better cards, those concepts feel pretty abstract.
One of our clients from 2024 was negotiating with their largest customer—a relationship that represented 40% of their revenue. The customer wanted to renegotiate pricing downward while extending payment terms. Standard advice would be to diversify your customer base. Great long-term strategy, terrible short-term help.
We spent three weeks analyzing the customer's actual alternatives, their internal processes, and their pain points with competitors. Turned out they'd already tried switching suppliers twice and came back each time.
Armed with that knowledge, our client could negotiate from a position of understanding rather than fear. They kept the pricing mostly intact, offered a modest payment term extension, and added a service component that the customer actually valued more than a discount.
The deal took six weeks to finalize. It wasn't elegant or quick. But it preserved margins and strengthened a relationship that could have been damaged by defensive negotiating.
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