The Negotiation

The negotiations were dragging. (In short, everything was normal.) The customer requested an escalation. (Still normal.)

“My people,” my counterpart explained, “are telling me that your company keeps bringing up new things.”

“Interesting,” I replied. “My people are telling me that your company keeps bringing up old things.”

“You’ll need to bend on the price.”

“Bend?” I thought. “I’ll see if I can hire a contortionist.” I replied.

“Funny..”

“I can’t believe he has a sense of humor,” I thought. “I was sure that he was an automaton.”

“.. and on the terms and conditions. Naturally, we don’t accept your standard payment terms.”

“Of course not,” I replied. “That’s why we offered you better terms.”

“Nevertheless…”

“Do you plan on paying in the same decade that the invoice is generated?” I thought.

“… you’ll have to do better.”

“It’s nice that we understand each other,” I replied.

The photo is from our visit to Poland – appropriately demonstrating the care that must be taken in contractual negotiations.