Taking back the room

Nothing could be worse than thinking you are going to have a 1:1 negotiation meeting and finding that half their company has taken time off to join your negotiation 😊

Your first gut reaction is a "fight or flight" response. Your heart rate goes up. Blood pressure increases. Muscles tense up, and in addition to all this, you feel like an idiot as you are underprepared.

Everybody looks at you. The lead negotiator asks if your team is running late (pre-planned, of course). At this point, if you don't react swiftly, you've lost the negotiation before it even began. Or have you?

You have 5 seconds to take back the room!

Here is what you need to do:

1. Show your confidence: change your posture, move your shoulders slightly backwards, and straighten your back.

2. Make eye contact with every single one in the room.

3. Follow up by responding with, "As this is only the first stage of negotiations, I didn't want to inconvenience my team members", or "Once we move on to the serious issues, I will bring in my team."

4. Move to sit in the power chair in the room (this could be at the head of the table or directly in the middle, opposite to them). Make a big show about taking your place.

5. Take the initiative and make the opening statement.

Boom! You "own the room".

Talk to a negotiation expert

We are an independent consulting business that sells no licenses or Cloud services. That is on purpose, so our advice is unbiased.

Let us handle your next software or Cloud vendor negotiation and steer you through every step. Share your challenges in the form below, and let's examine them together.