Negotiating with Enterprise Procurement Teams
You have to want to win more than you want to not lose.
We are on vacation!!! So, I’m sending less technical stuff out and more adjacent topics.
Here’s some advice for when selling to a big company. What happens after you’ve negotiated price and scope with your stakeholder? Procurement enters the picture. Even if you've already reduced the price with the stakeholder, the Procurement team will want a further discount.
You can either build this into your pricing strategy or don't discount. Your price is your price. However, the marketplace may limit your ability to stick to your price. If you are in a highly competitive market, you may not have much leverage and are forced to reduce your price. If you are forced to lower your price, make sure to couple that with a reduction of scope. In a negotiation, you want to get something if you give something.
If you aren't in a competitive situation, there isn't much incentive to give a pure discount. So it's now a fight of wills. Do you want to win more than you wish not to lose?