“Julie” recently confessed that her latest negotiation failed, because the client rejected her price proposal and there was no deal.
I disagreed.
That negotiation saved both her and her client from wasting more time on a doomed, bad-fit collaboration.
Maybe that’s not a reason to pop open some champagne, but it could also have ended much worse.
She asked me “How?” – and I want to share the answer.
There are four signs that you lost control of a negotiation, and will regret not just calling it off. None of them happened to “Julie”.
1. You got pressured into making immediate decisions that violate your standards, and ethics or simply don’t favor you
2. The client unilaterally decided to unbundle services or change scope without adjusting the price
3. You gave discounts or other concessions without getting anything remotely as valuable in exchange
4. Discussions dragged on without progress or closure, making you wait and anxiously overextend on resources spent to get the client
If nothing like that happened in a negotiation, regardless of whether it ended with a sale – I sincerely congratulate you. You had control the whole time and ended it with zero regrets. The client will likely respect you and maybe refer you to someone later on.
And if you did lose control – at least it was educational. Nobody gets good at navigating a negotiation it without being bad at it at first.