Hi Joe,
It was very timely of you to come and speak to us this past Tuesday. I used what I learned on Thursday negotiating with a well-known sports camera company.
We are a tiny company of myself, my husband, 2 engineers, 2 interns, and 2-4 consultants. We were struggling in our business the last few years. As a result, we had to shut down the India operation and backfill everything in expensive Silicon Valley. We also had to hire people quickly to do those jobs. As a result, we had negative income which means digging into our own pockets since we are self-funded and didn’t have very deep pockets at all. We had lost a lawsuit with a contractor. All in all, we were having a really tough time when the sports camera opportunity showed up. We needed the project badly.
They have a really tough negotiator on their side. Her role is technology alliance with partners. She always negotiates from the position of power and can be very intimidating.
After taking your seminar, I went home and prepared with my husband and felt good going into the negotiation. I didn’t feel insulted or offended by her. I just used your strategies.
We ended up walking away with an even bigger deal for the total package and they are even more locked into our technology.
When my organization grows more, I definitely want to hire you to train all my biz dev people!