Change the Negotiator

Whenever there is a change in the primary negotiator, it can be quite frustrating. You have to bring the new person up to speed, educate them, and then try to pick up where you left off. The customer may change the negotiator for number of reasons. The old negotiator may have left or moved to a new responsibility, or even occasionally the customer may feel, and you may agree, that the person you have been negotiating with was an impediment to reaching an agreement and it’s time to bring in a new player.

Occasionally, however, it is used as a truly tactical move and if you don’t spot it, it can really throw you off. You might hear something like this:

•  “Unfortunately, my predecessor was not really in sync with our corporate objectives. He agreed to some things that we simply can’t agree to, so you are going to have to be considerably more forthcoming.”

The message is that we will keep all your concessions, we are taking ours off the table, and you are going to have to give us even more to just keep this process going. At this point, you probably want to throttle the other person. You have worked so hard to hammer out the agreement and now somebody is suddenly coming in, throwing it all away and saying that you have to give even more.

The customer will not be thrown off when you get angry because they expect it. They don’t care. They figure after you blow your stack, you will accept the situation and give them more concessions. The key here is, don’t get angry. Keep your cool. You might try responding:

•  “I understand fully. Let’s take a minute to go back and reiterate our initial proposals to each other. Then we can restart the process from there and see what we can do to reshape things to make them more agreeable to your organization.”

The message is simple. “If you want to take back all your concessions, fine. We will simply take back all of ours and we can start over. If you really thought that you were going to get us to give you more just because you’re new, it won’t work.” Of course, you may well get a strong push back. Usually however, once the customer realizes their tactic has been recognized, they will back off and continue on where you left off.

Of course, there is one area where customers use change the negotiator all the time. The way the tactic is used is that when you think that you have reached agreement with the end-user, the end-user suddenly proclaims they can't make the deal. They have to turn it over to the Purchasing Department. When you go over to purchasing, the purchasing agent says,

•  “I’m sorry, but Joe down in the plant is simply not authorized to reach any agreement with any of our suppliers. As I’m sure you are aware, we are looking at a number of possible vendors. And I am afraid that you are at a serious disadvantage because your prices are not really very competitive.”

This can be extremely frustrating, especially if you think you almost had a deal and suddenly, it gets pulled out from under you. Just keep in mind that this is a standard tactic. This is just a game they are playing. Don't get angry, don't get upset, just play it out. Just go back to what we said above, offer to start all over again and see what happens. 

Or, it you think that you really do have a deal with Joe and that this is just a Nibble tactic, you could say:

• "I'm sorry, but I have given you everything that I have to give and any changes that we need to make in one area will have to be compensated for elsewhere."