How many EAs are asked to negotiate sales contracts?

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.