This is one of my personal philosophy statements regarding negotiations.  It’s seem obvious, but I’ve witnessed both sales and professional services staff miss this one over and over again.

 

Example #1:  Your contract with a customer has a CPI Index built in, so that you can raise your prices by the CPI index each year.  But for the last few weeks, your customer has expressed concern with a software bug introduced in the last release.  You decide not to implement the CPI Index this year to make up for their frustration.  A 2% increase, is an easy give to ensure you don’t lose the customer.  But if you don’t tell them you aren’t going to raise their price, they will never know.  They will appreciate it, and the gesture will likely go a long way – if they know about it!

 

Example #2:  Your project manager hears from a customer that they weren’t happy with a training class that was delivered by a new trainer, so the project manager decides to make the class non-billable.  Use the decision as a way to ensure that you get credit from the customer for doing the right thing, and ensuring they don’t seek alternatives for future training activities.

 

Giving away things of value to your customer, can be the right thing to do.  Getting credit for it, is of value to you.   So, “Give a little to get a lot, but only if it’s appreciated.”