As a business owner, the contracts you enter can make or break you. Practically all business contracts require negotiations. Therefore, the key to ensuring that the contracts you enter are beneficial to your business is knowing how to successfully negotiate. In this article, we provide you with some tips for ensuring successful business contract negotiations.
Do your research. Prior to negotiating, it’s important that you do your research. Generally, the party with more information has more leverage. Therefore, be sure to research all relevant issues in order to give yourself the best chance at a successful outcome.
Break it up. When negotiating, break up the contract into sections. This avoids the necessity for you and the other party to feel the need to take an “all or nothing” approach to negotiations. Focusing on the contract as a whole during negotiations can be overwhelming and rarely leads anywhere. However, by breaking it up, you and the other party can reach a series of small agreements. This is far more manageable than trying to reach an agreement on the entire contract at once.
Understand your priorities. In order for your contract negotiation to be successful, you must understand your priorities. Without a solid grasp of your priorities, you’ll have no way to assess whether a contract meets your needs. Understanding your priorities helps you keep your eye on the prize and avoid focusing on minor issues.
Make concessions. You should approach your contract negotiation with an attitude of flexibility. After all, the other party doesn’t want to leave feeling like they’ve gotten nothing out of the deal. Therefore, it’s necessary to make concessions during the negotiation process. The offers you present should always leave enough wiggle room to enable you to make reasonable concessions to the other party.
Emphasize points of agreement. Rather than focusing on your disagreements, try to emphasize the things you and the other party agree on. By establishing a collaborative tone from the onset, you and the other party are much more likely to reach an agreement that is acceptable to you both.
Focus on facts. Finally, when negotiating, try to focus on facts, not emotions. Generally, the more emotional you or the other party get during your contract negotiation, the less likely you’ll be to reach an agreement.
Contact Our New York Business Contracts and Agreements Attorney
Contracts are an essential part of business. Therefore, when negotiating a contract, you should be as prepared as possible. Part of this preparation should include working with a business contracts and agreements attorney, who you can find at Business Law Firm LLC. Contact us to schedule a preliminary consultation.