Soviet Demands Pushback

"Rather than a mutual dance of small concessions, inching towards agreement, the Kremlin tends to maintain ludicrous, even insultingly excessive demands until the last minute."

A summary of one present-day Soviet hangover from Mark Galeotti. Someone committed to shining light on shady Russian machinations.

Pitching recurring monthlies has changed the game. It's over a quarter-century since I sold actual software. As bought by Enterprise Sales leaders. Fancying themselves as alpha traders, one of the comedy price-bashing ploys I encountered still stays with me.

"That CD costs pennies, there's no way we gonna pay such a lot more than that."

'Yep. And that round piece of plastic is but an infinitesimal factor. Try doing it yourself. You'll need to sack half your salesteam and start hiring a load of coders. Then manage 'em.'

So ran but one 'handle'.

Yet I've dealt with a few Soviet-style negotiators down the years.

Never making compromise, everything a red line, refusing to budge. Their way or the highway.

You must stand firm.

Granted, it can be easier if you've a genuinely unique proposition. One at least nowhere near commodity.

Yet ask anyone with experience here. When you accept a client on these uneven terms, they're always a disaster.

Remember, how they are as a prospect is what they're like as a customer.

In terms of behaviour, pre-sales begets post-sales.

Bullies before, bullies after. For instance.

Indeed, I've had internal conversations when where the only 'acceptable' payment would've meant zero margin, so should we withdraw and leave a 'competitor' (not to mention eventual client) in the stink?

Not all deals are created equal.

There's appeasement from the school of ruthlessness saying negotiation is meant to be a hard-nosed, give-no-quarter, leave-relationship-at-the-door, objective pursuit.

Whilst on the odd 'currency', this may be the case, overall our B2B world best requires win-win. Go for full collaboration, every time. No matter any discrepancy in relative 'power'.

There's a raft of advice around pushing the stated limits. Making combo proposals. Slowing it all down.

While we thankfully hardly ever deal with such megalomaniacal mafia don as a Putin, we do though come across corporate negotiators who couldn't care less about us.

The thing to know is that you may well lose revenue from walking away. But in the long run you'll definitely profit.