We all have to negotiate daily and in all aspects of our lives, even if we are not always aware of it: who is going to do the grocery shopping, for instance? Who’s going to walk the dog?  What can we do about an electricity bill that’s too high or about a salary that is too low?

Even with constant practice, most of us are still not experienced negotiators, and we know how difficult and unsuccessful negotiating can be. The chances of winning in a negotiation are particularly bad if we have a weak position or little expertise with negotiating.

This applies to both private and business negotiations. However, business negotiations are often even more complex due to a larger number of participants with a diverse range of interests.

Sarah describes in her whitepaper why negotiations fail and introduces potential methods to master even complex negotiation situations. Her  recommendation – Listen carefully to better understand your counterpart’s point of view.

Read more about how to master negotiations in our whitepaper.

Share your experiences and how you mastered negotiations in the past.

If we look at negotiation projects of financial service providers today, the process implements a wide variety of functions through experts in different departments: IT Department, IT Security Department and Data Protection Department, Purchasing Department and Legal Department, or through external legal counsel. This applies to both the provider and the buyer side.

The resulting philosophy on interests requires moderation and structure, which makes the process transparent for all parties concerned. This is the starting point for IT Sourcing Advisors today. In order to communicate successfully with the other departments and to lead the negotiations towards an acceptable solution, they must be capable of speaking on different topics. This is true with regard to IT discussions, Two-Factor Authentication, as well as to the interpretation of a new European General Data Protection Regulation. In addition, the negotiation situation needs to be controlled in a sensitive and expediting way. A partnership collaboration model involving all stakeholders is crucial.

The IT Sourcing Advisor in charge of digital transformation must therefore be an all-rounder: a mediator but also an expert, a good listener but also a moderator.

Below is a list of things that characterize him/her:

• Settlement on the buyer and provider side
• Support in selection, negotiation and outsourcing processes for service providers
• Outcome: Length of negotiation
• Success factor: Holistic, content-based understanding paired with communication skills

Read more about the impact of sourcing architectures in my whitepaper.

The focus used to be on price negotiations in the past, while today, counseling needs are to be understood as a holistic feasibility analysis. This is partly due to the increased transparency of information on price and performance. Using comparison platforms, anyone can make simply preselect Self-Service options today.

The counseling needs today revolve around the following questions:

• How can cloud solutions be integrated into existing IT infrastructures?
• Can providers meet the increased security requirements of regulated financial service institutions?
• Is there a way to check that?

What are your experiences in contract negotiations?