Dealing with hard-ball negotiators. The key to dealing with hard-ballers is playing their game, on terms that they think are their terms, but arriving at your outcome. All hard-ballers want to do is extract a pint of blood. Some people do it because they really like saving the money, and some do it for the sport. Like hunting. Some people do it for the meat, and some people do it just to shoot things.
The key with dealing with hard-ballers is the give-get. There has got to be “give” for them to say yes, since that’s what they’re demanding, but there has to be “get” on your end, if you are to have any chance at being an enroller. If they know they can just steam-roll you, they are going to steamroll you every single time. Instead, set up the parameters. Tell the hard-baller, “OK, I will give you this concession, but what I need back is _______” and name your demand.
Let me give you an example. Company A is a law firm. The managing partner comes back to me, after getting my proposal, and says, “Alright. There are three provisions that we need to talk about. The first provision is the late fees, assessed at 2% if we’re late. We’re much more comfortable with them being assessed at 1.5%. Second, we are not paying the retainer at the beginning of the month. We’re paying it at the end of the month, the way law firms do, and we’re not going to pay it over two months. We’re going to pay it over 3 months. And third, your 60-day termination policy is not something we’re comfortable with. If we’re going to fire you, we’ll fire you, and we’ll negotiate what the appropriate pay for past services will be.”
The strategy to use is, deal with the one you can agree with, first. For us, the late fee was easy. We could care less about the half a percentage point. So, OK, buddy, you got that one. This is important in setting up the first perameter. Then I went after the second point, which was going to be the most contentious, but probably not the most important to us, which was the terms. He was adamant about this issue, whereas I saw it as just a billing issue. I had a spirited discussion with him about why we get paid up front, but he said, “We’re just not going to do it.” I said, “OK, fine, but I’m not comfortable in doing it over three months. We’ll be paid over two months.” He said, “I’m not comfortable with that.” I said, “Look, I will give you the end of the month, instead of up-front, but I need to get it in two installments, not three.” He reluctantly said, “Fine.”
Then we got to the most important one to me, the termination clause. So we had already set the precedent of some give, and also some get. I think he probably knew what I was doing. So he stood on the table and went on this long soliloquy about how fairly he will treat us if he fires us. I said, “That’s great. We’re just not going to drop the termination clause. But I will give you 30 days instead of 60 days, but that is the absolute shortest time frame.” He said, “Fine.”
So, deal with the easy one first. Deal with the most contentious, second. And the one that’s most important to you, third, after there has already been a precedent set for give-get.