In my prior post I addressed the strategy of “Clock Negotiation” which I repeatedly see used by large companies when negotiating contracts with smaller companies.  This is essentially a process of running negotiations through various stages and bureaucracy where business terms are revisited over and over in order to wear the smaller company down and land a better deal for the larger company.

So what can the smaller company do?  It must preempt the process.  Here are a couple of ideas:

1.    Ask for an explanation of the larger company’s contracting process up front.  Address the problem before you get in the middle of it.  More times than not the company representative you are dealing with will give you enough information that you can at least get a feeling whether the company will be easy or hard to work with through negotiations.  If you think they will be hard, take that into account in the pricing proposal. 

2.    Ask your attorney touch base with their attorney who will be working the deal.  It is amazing how well this can work – but key here is to make sure you have an attorney who understands your deals and genuinely wants to get the deal done.  Watch out – most attorneys are terrible at this.  They want to tell you the million things that can potentially go wrong in your transaction.  They are “deal killers”.  Find an attorney who understands how to do deals and will partner with your company in the sales process. 

A goal of my business law firm is that we can help clients realize their business goals.  We succeed as they succeed.  We are part of their business process, not just another cost-center; another layer of insurance.

In a post last Fall I quoted Guy Kawasaki: "Find a lawyer who genuinely wants to do deals, not prevent them, and set the right legal framework.  Many lawyers view their role as the "adult supervision" that will prevent stupid deals from taking place.  However, their bias is often that a deal is bad until proven good.  Avoid this kind of lawyer.  Instead, find one who views his role as a problem solver and service function for you, the customer."

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Alerding Castor is an Indianapolis law firm focusing on business law, information technology law (including SaaS law and legal technology consulting), private equity consulting, and business litigation.