

Entreprenurial Negotiating Tactics - mollylynn
http://www.infochachkie.com/kiss-of-death/

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dctoedt
It's mostly a great post, but the author's first suggestion -- never let the
other side draft the contract -- is a good way to kill a big-company deal in
its cradle. For reasons good and bad, big companies often insist on using
their paper. If you force their contract negotiators to concede on that point,
in their minds they already don't like you, and they may be less willing to
concede substantive points that you want far more.

I used to be the general counsel for a medium-sized publicly-traded software
vendor. Before I would even look at a customer's software license agreement
form, I had the sales people arrange a five-minute phone call between me and
the customer's contracting people. I was usually able to sell the other side
on using our form (because our form was extremely customer-friendly). Even
when we wound up using the customer's form, though, that first phone call
helped establish a positive working relationship, which softened the blow when
I sent the customer a redline of their form.

(Not to try to divert attention, but I did an
[http://www.drafterschoice.com/2008/11/how-to-kill-a-big-
comp...](http://www.drafterschoice.com/2008/11/how-to-kill-a-big-company-deal-
in-the-cradle-insist-on-using-your-contract-form/) of the above comments at
[http://www.drafterschoice.com/2008/11/how-to-kill-a-big-
comp...](http://www.drafterschoice.com/2008/11/how-to-kill-a-big-company-deal-
in-the-cradle-insist-on-using-your-contract-form/))

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karenking
These are more "contractual provisions", rather than negotiating tactics.

However, lots of good advice here, including some that involves little company
/ big company negotiating tactics.

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matthewmeredith
Agreed - I wish I had read this a couple years ago...I am going to send this
to my old boss!

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adldesigner
Very nice post! This applies to real world startups too.

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mollylynn
Nice post - lots of good suggestions here.

