When To Negotiate For More

When you negotiate a deal with someone there will be specific needs and goals you will have to satisfy. Your ability to do this will largely determine whether or not you have a successful negotiation.

Although your negotiation is likely to include specific factors related to your business or field of interest, there are certain things which are common to all negotiations.

These general factors can be equally as important, because like your specific needs and goals, they can either positively or negatively influence the negotiation process and ultimately the result you get.

In this article we will look at these general factors, so that you know when you should negotiate for more than what you are currently being offered.

Negotiating Time

As a general rule in any negotiation, if you are providing a service or product you expect to receive a certain amount of money for delivering it within a set time period.

If however you are asked to delivery things sooner, you should always be prepared to raise the price for doing so.

This is an area you can negotiate your demands quite easily, as most people will expect to pay more for quicker service.

However if you are unable to provide your product or service within the agreed upon time, expect your price to be negotiated down.

Negotiate Quality

All customers have their own unique demands, and therefore some may require your product or service to differ slightly from its original specifications.

There is nothing wrong with meeting these demands, however you should be prepared to negotiate the priced upwards if it will take you extra time to meet those specifications.

Likewise if you are asked to reduce the quality or functionality of a product, be prepared to have your price negotiated downwards.

Negotiations Regarding Quantity

Generally speaking you can expect to negotiate cost down if your customer is buying in bulk, as this will lower the price per unit.

If however your customer makes such a large order that it will give them control of the market, you should not lower your price but raise it during the negotiation.

This is important because once someone has cornered the market they will then control the price that you can charge them in the future.

There is also risk involved in very large orders which you should take into consideration when negotiating.

If for example your customer leaves you, or the business fails, you could be left in a very serious situation if you had committed a lot of resources to meeting their order.

So as the risk goes up, you should be prepared to negotiate the price up.

Start A New Negotiation If Changes Are Made

Sometimes a customer will place a specific order with you, and then later change the specifications.

It is very important at this stage to resume negotiations regarding cost, because once you agree to make one change for free, it will usually lead to more one way requests that will come at your expense.

Most large businesses will have some sort of control to prevent this from getting out of hand.

If you do not have such a control in place and can make the changes without additional cost or time spent, make sure the customer is aware that you have made these changes for free and keep a record of the changes you make.