"Is that your best and final offer?" the chief sourcing officer asked.
Best and Final Offer Strategy
One of the trickiest and most important parts of negotiating is holding the ground you've spent time and effort protecting as your try to bring a deal to a close.
Depending on how well you've defended your price, you may or may not have a good deal at this point. But even if you've held your ground and carved out a good deal, a tough customer will try to "nibble" away until you end up with a less-profitable deal than you thought.
Good negotiators will wear your down; it's part of their strategy. A negotiation can be a long process, and you have to resist the urge to give in due to impatience, irritation, or exhaustion.
Sometimes it seems as though the counter-offering process could go on forever with smaller and smaller concessions from each side. But at some point, one side or the other runs out of room to maneuver and it is time to bring the negotiation to a close. This is a tricky and sometimes fatal phase, if poorly navigated.
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To 'sell' your idea, product or service, you must pass the ACID test:
A. Gain favorable Attention - C. Inspire Confidence
- I. Build Interest
- D. Allow Desire to surface.
When 'desire' surfaces, the other person takes the lead in the conversation while you provide the evidence necessary to justify the transaction.
There are three important interrelated characteristics that come into focus when you reach the endgame in a negotiation: your bottom line, your walk-away option(s), and leverage.
To be successful at any negotiation, it is important to understand the interplay among these three factors.