Ben Kimura-Gross

Nobody see you the way you do. That's a problem we all share. And what's worse, you ask 10 people what they thought of your performance during a contract negotiation, and you get 10 different answers. What can you do? 1. Ask several people to get different perspectives. (Make it a habit) 2. Ask open questions. (Not "Was it helpful when I ...?" but "How did it strike you when I ...?") 2. Ask questions about specific aspects of your performance and communication style. - "At what point(s) would you say I could have been more collaborative / adaptive / strict / direct / kind / etc?" - "What do you think of the rapport we built?" - "How would you assess the tactics I used when we got stuck on point ABC?" The key is specificity.

In the startup world, the need for adaptability is self-evident. Everything is always changing, you pivot, your clients get a new, unforeseen benefit from a pilot project, or you hit an unexpected tech hurdle. All these factors affect contracts underway or being negotiated. If you can' adapt, you'll fail. Sometimes, it'll mean renegotiating an existing contract, one of the toughest jobs. So it's not just you who needs to adapt. Train your clients to be adaptable, too. How to do that? With ongoing expectation management. Address risks. Keep an open line of communication at all times. Regularly update decision makers, and your champions. In larger organizations, these might be different people, even in different departments.

Adaptability is an attitude, and it's strangely connected to the ability to doubt yourself. Perfect plans make for perfect disasters. When you get stuck, the way to get unstuck is to 1. carefully listen to your counterparts concerns, 2. ask follow-up questions to get them from talking about the positions from which they won't budge to talking about their underlying interests, and then 3. respond with adaptations. But what kind? In sales, here are your options: 1. adjust service level or product type 2. offer tailored solutions 3. pricing/flexible payment terms 4. bundle discounts 5. risk management (who bears which) 6. milestone-based contract triggers 7. expanded-pie options (longer contract duration, partnerships, JVs)

In startup sales negotiations with B2B clients, you'll face more unexpected demands, project change requests, sudden volume jumps, tight deadlines and shocking personalities than you can imagine. That's not because your clients are bad people. They’re just trying to make what you're offering fit their business needs. And it's a VUCA world, so their business needs might change, even during the few weeks you're negotiating a contract. So it's not smart to assume you'll go in with a plan and stick to it. It's smart to be willing and able to think on your feet when the situation requires it. It's smart to have flexibility built in from the start. But too much is risky, so to do well, you need clear priorities, no-go's, AND adaptability.

Let's look at an example from sales: An app that will increase a food producer's supply chain efficiency, potentially saving them €12 mio / month. The app developers fail to close the deal. Because it needs to be fed a lot of data and that's 2.5 h/day for x number of employees = cost Y. This workload analysis would have made a difference. But an even crucial data point was: How likely were employees to fully integrate the new app into their work flows? (If they didn't the €12 mio / month savings prognosis was false.) My point is: Standards, industry norms, etc. isn't enough. Look for the data others miss: Hidden costs, human factors that influence implementation, etc. Esp. in B2B, don't sell a service. Sell a business result.

Building rapport is important, but you're not negotiating to be friends. Not everyone wants to be friends; some just want to get the deal done. Don't confuse building rapport with being nice. With people who want to keep it factual, keep it factual. That builds rapport with them. The key is to stay calm and empathic, but that can look very different depending on who you're talking to. I once had a guy try to back-stab me in a negotiation (with a defamation). I found out. I set up a meeting and told him - calmly - that, with me, everyone starts with a clean slate. Sadly, now his had a notch cut into it. Let's keep it at one notch only, or the slate might break. Some people push until you stop them. We had great rapport after that.