{"id":12955,"date":"2020-12-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/the-problem-with-giving-in\/"},"modified":"2020-12-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T00:00:00","slug":"the-problem-with-giving-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotwork.com\/nz\/blog-nz\/2020\/the-problem-with-giving-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The problem with giving in"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n You\u2018ve worked your butt off to get this deal done and you\u2019re at the finish line. The contract has cleared legal and both sides have agreed to all of the terms. It literally just needs signatures. Then you get a phone call. It\u2019s the other side, and they\u2019re telling you that there\u2019s one more small adjustment that needs to be made, and if you can do that, then they can get the contract done. What do you do? Give in or push back?\n

All negotiators will face this dilemma at some point. When you ask most of them what to do, they typically reply, \u201cIt depends.\u201d They tell you that it depends on the size of the ask, the significance of the deal, and even how badly you want it. All of those considerations are supposed to inform your decision. The problem is, they\u2019re all opinion-based, emotionally driven criteria \u2014 two things on which I don\u2019t want to base a strategic move.<\/p>\n

Many buyers are taught to ask for closing concessions. Just as the deal is about to wrap up, they\u2019re instructed to request one more thing. (It used to be called The Columbo Ask, which is a very dated TV reference.) They\u2019re taught to do this because it works on unsuspecting dealmakers. The reason why it works is because the other side is dealing with last-minute demands not strategically, but emotionally.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with late demands. In fact, you should expect them, so that when you get them you know what to do. That\u2019s precisely where most dealmakers fall down: They don\u2019t prepare for late demands. Instead, they hope that they won\u2019t come up. Hope is not a reliable strategy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s assume that you choose to just give in to the demand. If the give is too big, you could completely disrupt the value of a deal and turn an otherwise good contract into a bad one. Let\u2019s assume that it\u2019s a minor ask: If you give in, you\u2019re conditioning the other side to continue to ask for more. And you\u2019ll never be able to get back whatever you gave, as it will become an expectation in all future negotiations.<\/p>\n

I was in a similar situation years ago. We had just won one of the biggest deals in my agency\u2019s history, and we were all very excited about working with the other party. The details had been finalized and all we needed to do was sign the contract. Then I got a phone call from the client. We were doing some retail marketing for them, and they asked us if we could swap out one of the retailers for another. It was a small ask, so I agreed. A week later, I got another phone call. They mentioned that since they were swapping retailers, they needed more time and had to push the start out a month. Not ideal but it seemed logical and I didn\u2019t want to be difficult, so I agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another week went by, the contract had not been signed, and they called again. This time, they said, they noticed that the contract had a cancel-for-convenience notice period of six months, and they wanted it adjusted to 30 days. This was a much bigger ask, since it would impact the employment agreements that I had with the team servicing this account. But if I didn\u2019t agree, I feared that I would lose the deal. So, I agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another week went by, with no signed contract, and they called again, this time asking for longer payment terms and a few other \u201csmall\u201d items. Every time they called, the list grew. Reacting emotionally, I kept saying \u201cyes\u201d until I just couldn\u2019t anymore. When I said I finally said \u201cno,\u201d the contract was signed. Not the contract that we started with, but a contract that was now much more favorable to the new client.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the problem with just giving in. The best way that I could\u2019ve handled late demands was to ask for something in return. All I had to do was make a trade. It wasn\u2019t their fault for asking for things, but it was my fault for not knowing how to handle their demands. I wasn\u2019t prepared to do it. I wasn\u2019t even sure what to ask for. Here are a few things that you can do when you\u2019re in this situation:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Prepare for them to make a late demand.<\/strong>\u00a0It will happen to you. So keep a list of items with you that you can easily pull from when it comes time to trade for that late demand. Be sure to include items that you can use for small requests and items that you can use for big requests. Your return ask should be approximately equivalent to their ask.<\/li>\n
  2. Limit future demands.<\/strong>\u00a0When late demands come up, ask the other party, \u201cIs there anything else that we need to deal with?\u201d The last thing you want is to have an endless list of demands. Find out if there are any other things that you need to consider and get them all on the table before you make your trade offer.<\/li>\n
  3. Trade for the signature.<\/strong>\u00a0No matter what you trade, condition it on the other party signing the contract with no further changes. Your closing concession should sound something like this: \u201cIf you agree to sign the contract with no further changes, then I will give you what you\u2019re asking for.\u201d Draw a line in the sand in order to get the deal done.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If I\u2019d been given this advice prior to finding myself in the situation described above, I could\u2019ve easily traded their first request for the signed contract. Instead, I was hoping that they would just do the right thing, and I was reacting emotionally to get the deal done. So, before you just give in, ask yourself, \u201cWhat do I need in return to give them what they want?\u201d Answering that question will let you know what you need to do to stop further late demands.<\/p>\n

    We Can Help You Deal with Last-Minute Demands<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Are the other party\u2019s last-minute demands threatening to disrupt the value of your deal and turn an otherwise good contract into a bad one?\u00a0We can help!\u00a0Drawing on 45 years of real-world negotiating experience, we\u2019ll assist you with getting better deals, saving time, and creating value for all involved \u2014 not to mention preserving and even strengthening relationships. Let us partner you with one of our advisers, ensuring that you\u2019ve got the broadest view of your deal.<\/p>\n

    Call one of our experts today: P: 04 2979069, info@scotwork.co.nz<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You\u2018ve worked your butt off to get this deal done and you\u2019re at the finish line. The contract has cleared legal and both sides have agreed to all of the terms. It literally just needs signatures. Then you get a phone call. It\u2019s the other side, and they\u2019re telling you that there\u2019s one more small…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":12956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_legacy_url":"blog-nz\/2020\/the-problem-with-giving-in\/","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe problem with giving in | Scotwork NZ Negotiation Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"World leaders in business negotiation training and consultancy with experts across 120 countries, with negotiation courses taught in 29 languages.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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