How many EAs are asked to negotiate sales contracts?

4 Comments

1. AnonymousJuly 25,2022 at 2:52AM UTC

   Negotiating the contract is a *great* learning opportunity for you and shows that your boss is trying to teach you the business. Please don’t back out. Learning to negotiate makes you a far more valuable employee.

   Step 1: Go to your boss and get 1)list of their ideal terms and 2) list of the terms your manager will be able to settle for.

   Step 2: Call the vendor back and tell them that your manager was unable to accept the original terms, and present your manager’s ideal terms as a counteroffer.

   Step 3: The vendor accepts or counters your manager’s ideal terms.

   A)Agree to the contract, *subject to your boss’s approval*, if the vendor accepts your manager’s ideal terms or if vendor’s offer is significantly better than your boss’s settlement position. What you say is: I’ll take your offer to my management for view.

   B)If vendor’s offer is worse than your boss’s settlement terms, counter with something somewhat better than your boss’s settlement terms.

   C)Final outcome with the vendor should be something better or similar to your boss’s settlement terms.

   3)If you need guidance during the process, consult your boss.

   4)Know that it is a common tactic to have the final decision-maker (your boss) negotiate through a junior staffer (you.) This allows your boss to refuse an offer that’s not good enough. At this point in your career, always assume that your boss will have to give final approval— that gives your boss more leverage to improve the deal.

   You are truly lucky that your boss is teaching you to negotiate.

2. AnonymousJuly 25,2022 at 1:51PM UTC

   Thank you for sharing this!

3. AnonymousAugust 4,2022 at 4:04PM UTC

   TY - I used your post to get through my first assignment. Still uncomfortable, but I exceeded my manager's expectations. Unfortunately, since they are a sales expert, they are now adding it to my responsibilities. I was afraid of that! I'm not sure I can continue that level of success.

4. AnonymousAugust 11,2022 at 1:40AM UTC

   Write back for guidance whenever you like!
   I’m happy to help.

   Tell your manager that you need guidance as you are new to this. If he’s adding this to your responsibilities, he has to be willing to train you.

   As for going forward: you have done *GREAT* so far with very little training, so you have a real aptitude for this. More experience will just make you better. Ideally, you’ll start to enjoy the back and forth.

   One way to prepare for more negotiating assignments: ask for copies of some recent contracts or summaries of their key terms. The summaries are often called “term sheets”, although your organization might have a different name for them.

   If you list out key terms for all, you will start getting an idea for the key variables. Go to your boss with all the questions.

   By the way: if you take on these important responsibilities successfully, you are exceeding the role of an Executive Assistant and should be moved upward in title and pay. After you’ve done a number of these successfully (4-6 months might be appropriate), talk about career advancement with your boss. And if your boss doesn’t want to advance you, you can find other opportunities that will do so.

   Let me share with you the best advice I ever received on negotiating from a very wise and experienced deal-maker:
   “Never be afraid to leave something on the table, and never be afraid to walk away from a deal.”
   Translation: Never be afraid to give your counter party something they want (ie be a little generous, don’t take every advantage you can), and never be afraid to turn down an offer that doesn’t work for you. A successful transaction lies between these two points.

   One more point: if your company does multiple deals with the same companies, you want both sides to be satisfied. You want to create a template that can be tweaked by both sides on future transactions. This saves brain damage, builds relationships and creates repeat business opportunities.