Contract negotiation can be the crucial factor in ensuring sales success.

It’s important for new sales in ensuring that the next sale is profitable and any risks are known in advance.

It’s important for existing contracts in ensuring contract changes do not endanger the profitability.

This course gives delegates the chance to improve or acquire negotiating skills. It also covers the  basics of commercial law so you can arrive at a good deal at minimum risk.

Adapting to meet your needs

We will discuss in advance your business objectives for this course and adapt the training wherever possible to use examples based on your industry and procedures

To help ensure we meet delegate needs we send out pre-course questionnaires to understand if there are topics of particular interest.

Course Aims

By the end of the course you will be able to :

• Understand the legal background to contracts.
• Use appropriate negotiating methods and skills.
• Plan for and manage contract negotiation meetings
• Understand what needs to be done after a negotiation meeting
• Understand the best contractual response to questions on :
  • Performance “guarantees”
  • Warranties
  • Software Licenses and Transferability – Who owns the code ?
  • Payment Terms
• Understand how to protect Intellectual Property Rights

Course Structure

This one day on-site course includes classroom teaching and lots of interaction.

There are also exercises throughout the course which will help you apply the techniques covered in the course to real life business situations.

Course Content

Session 1

The contract as part of the sales process

• Who stands behind the negotiators?
• Weighing up the other side
• Knowing the other sides' objectives
• Being professional
• Letters of intent and budgetary estimates
• Negotiation strategy
• Principled negotiation
• Sustaining the relationship
• Who has the authority and how can you tell?
• When to walk out
• Negotiating by phone, fax and e-mail

Session 2

The legal perspective

• What is negotiable? - A review of contract law
• Rules for a valid contract
• How contracts can be frustrated

Hazardous Contractual Issues

• Performance “guarantees”
• Warranties
• Software Transferability – Who owns the code ?
• Payment Terms
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Unfair provisions

Difficulties along the way

• Traps for the unwary
• Dirty tricks?
• The emotions - shouting and pleading
• 'You'll have to do better than that!'
• The importance of planning
• The contract variation

Session 3

Team negotiating

• Your team
  • Setting up the team
  • Training the team
  • Working together
    
    
• Their team
  • The Project Manager
  • The Purchasing Department
  • The Quality Manager
  • The technician

Session 4

Contract meetings

• Playing at home and away
• Location and timing
• The agenda
• Who leads and when? Passing the ball
• Who takes the minutes ?
• Preliminary discussion
• Exploring the ground - First steps in negotiation
• Detailed bargaining - the 'if' and 'when'
• Tactics and tricks of negotiating
• Summing up the deal
• Washing up when the job is done
• The post mortem - What worked, what did not