To negotiate a business deal, prepare a brief that makes the open decisions visible. List the terms you want, the limits on your authority and the information you still need from the other party. Update the brief as the discussion changes.
This guide focuses on that working document. The sales negotiation guide covers the wider conversation and handoff after agreement.
Write the purpose of the deal
Describe what each side is trying to achieve in plain language. Separate confirmed requirements from assumptions. If you cannot explain the other party’s objective without guessing, identify the question you need to ask.
For example, a buyer may want to begin a project before a reporting deadline. The seller may need enough notice to assign the delivery team. Those interests matter when discussing the start date; they should not be hidden behind a general request to “move quickly.”
List the decisions still open
Use a short list of issues with the current proposal beside each one. Include scope, price, payment, delivery timing and responsibilities where relevant. Mark items already approved separately from items still under discussion.
Do not assume that every issue is negotiable. Some may be fixed by available capacity or an internal approval. Ask the appropriate owner before suggesting a change to the customer.
Record your limits and alternatives
For each issue, state your preferred outcome and the boundary beyond which approval is required. Also examine what you could do if this deal did not happen. That alternative needs to be real and assessed on comparable terms.
Keep estimates of the other side’s limits separate from your own. The ZOPA guide explains how possible agreements depend on those limits and why an assumed range is not a confirmed one.
A salesperson can know their own discount authority without knowing the customer’s maximum budget. The brief should preserve that uncertainty rather than fill the gap with an invented number.
Prepare options you can deliver
For a fictional training-services deal, the open issue might be the size of the first phase. The original proposal covers four teams. An alternative could cover one team first, with clear acceptance criteria and a separate decision about expansion.
The brief would identify the reduced scope, its price, the resources required and the person who can approve it. It would also state what the smaller phase cannot demonstrate about a wider rollout.
Prepare the consequences of each option. If payment timing changes, involve the commercial owner. If delivery dates change, check capacity. Avoid trading something you do not have authority to promise.
Use the brief during the discussion
Start by confirming the issues to resolve. Ask what is driving a requested change, then compare relevant options. Give the other party time to examine the proposal rather than filling every pause with a new concession.
Record proposals accurately. “We could consider a smaller first phase” is not the same as an approved revised scope. When a proposal is conditional, write down the condition and who must confirm it.
Finish with a decision record
Summarise agreed points, open items and the next action for each. Include owners and dates. Send the summary for correction and route terms needing specialist review to the people responsible for them.
Before handing the deal to delivery, check that the final record reflects the approved commitments. Retain the reasons behind important changes so colleagues do not have to reconstruct the negotiation from scattered messages.
If your team makes inconsistent concessions or loses track of open terms, bring a recent negotiation brief to a discovery meeting with The Sales Arc. That provides a concrete basis for discussing process or training work.
