Policy and Resource Limits 

Policy and resource limits is a tactic that both you and your customer might use. It is also one that is sometimes difficult to distinguish from reality.

Often there really are limits, both in terms of company policy and in terms of available resources. You may have some real policy limits and resource limits that you can’t or shouldn’t try to get around.

For example, customers will sometimes want exceptions to your credit policies. You need to be very careful how you handle that, as you know if you’ve ever been burned by a customer that couldn’t pay its bills. Similarly, the customer might want certain kinds of reports that your information systems simply are not set up to deliver, and again that would be a real resource limit.

On the other hand, you can sometimes use the policy or resource limits to set up the kind of asymmetrical trades we discuss in the negotiation training programs. If an exception to your credit policies really is warranted and you conclude corporately that for this customer it does not impose a significant risk, then you might be prepared to be flexible in that area if you could trade it for really big concessions in return.

Similarly, if your information systems could be tweaked just a little to provide the reports that they want, again you might have the possibility for a nice asymmetrical trade.

We have also found in our negotiation seminars that customers frequently use policy and resource limits. When the customer throws out to you that they can’t do something because they have a policy against it, keep in mind that the policy is seldom written in stone. They made the policy and they could change it. (Continued on page 10)

.