The Hovering Pen and the Nibble

You have worked long and hard to reach agreement. Finally, you think everything has been agreed to and that all you have to do is write it up and sign it. You are blissfully contemplating the hero's welcome that you will receive when you come back to the office with the signed agreement.

Then suddenly the other party "just happens to remember" some small, little item that you hadn't resolved. It's not very important, so you agree. Nothing should stand in the way of getting this dealfinalized now. Unfortunately, that issue leads the other party to remember several other small issues.

You are starting to get a little nervous. You don't want this deal to get away, so of course you give in. While you are waiting for the revisions to be included in the agreement, they bring up a few other issues that they also want to discuss with you. And so it goes.

You are the victim of the Hovering Pen strategy, sometimes called the Nibble. As far as you are concerned, you had a done deal. As far as they were concerned, the negotiation was far from over. They are just using your anxiety to get the deal closed in order to extract additional concessions. (Continued on page 37)