I made up the phrase ”shaking the tree” for situations where you are in some sort of a deal and you go back to request new terms. As a serial entrepreneur I have found myself in the situation on both sides of the table pretty frequently. Obviously if you have a contract things can be different, this is for things where you do not necessarily have a locked long term contract.
Last week I had a vendor (personal thing, nothing with Ditech) ask for something different in the commercial terms we had. Instead of looking at what they wanted, which was a service level type of thing, I called a competitor to ask for a full quote. Turned out the competitor could just do more. My current vendor was very upset when I told them that not only could I not give into the additional request but I was actually going to end our relationship and go with someone else entirely. They then said “If I had known that I would have never asked for anything.” But sadly it was too late, damage was done.
Since negotiation is a part of being in business I have a few things I think about before I negotiate or request changes:
- What is the price/deal that if I got would work for me, irrespective of the market?
- How easy is it to replace this good/service with another vendor at a similar price?
- (Sell side only) Are there better people out there doing what I am doing and by talking to the client am I waking them to take another look at the market?
- If I was the other party and I received my offer, how would I react?
- Could the other party disrupt anything in my business?
- Is the request worth making based on the risk of 1-5
If you can answer yes to #6 then at least you will be ready if your tree shaking results in a negative outcome.
