Turning Data Insights into Negotiation Leverage

The biggest negotiating win for my clients last year? $10,000 in 15 minutes. Here's how we did it. 1) We compared the offer to the 2024 Randstad Life Science Salary Guide and adjusted it for the geographic location. The evidence demonstrated that the offer was $5k under market. 2) We verified that information by comparing to publicly available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Again. $5k-$7k under market. 3) We drew attention to the fact that if my client left her current job, she'd miss out on a $5k bonus in the next three months. 4) We asked if there was a budget available to compensate for this through a signing bonus. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁? $5k salary offer increase + $5k signing bonus. She made $10,000 over a 15 minute phone call. Not bad for a day's work. ---------- Next time you're negotiating a job offer, remember the power of data :)

#Negotiation Tip Number 4: Gather and Leverage the Data.   In his book “Moneyball,” Michael Lewis quotes John Henry, renowned investment manager and owner of the Boston Red Sox, in reference to a comparison between professional baseball and the financial markets, “People in both fields operate with beliefs and biases. To the extent you can eliminate both and replace them with data, you gain a clear advantage.” Since that book was published, data analytics has become a vital part of how almost every major professional sports team makes decisions. Data is equally important in commercial real estate negotiations. Most CRE professionals realize the importance of obtaining data, but few understand how to fully use it to achieve a successful outcome. In a negotiation while representing a buyer of a low-rise office building in a submarket with dozens of similar-sized office buildings, my team cherry-picked comparable sales and sent them to the seller’s representative, making a case for a purchase price around $90 per square foot. On the contrary, the seller’s representative made the case that the purchase price should be closer to $100 per square foot — submitting their own version of comparable sales as justification. At this point, our team was certainly tempted to accept the invitation from the seller’s broker to play the high-low game. Instead, we evaluated the seller’s comp set to determine how we could either work toward bridging the gap or defend our original position all while trying to achieve our client’s goals. As we dissected both data sets, we were able to see that many of the seller’s comparable sales had already been renovated, while the property being bought still needed cosmetic renovation. That was telling from a qualitative analysis, but the most convincing case came when we put both sets of sales comps on a line graph to show the trend in sale price per square foot over time. This line graph was very helpful for both the buyer and the seller to understand the current value of the property as the next data point in a trendline. Ultimately, they agreed on a purchase price that equated to $87 per square foot. Both sides had data, but it wasn’t until it was dissected and brought to life that anyone truly understood how it brought relevance to the negotiation. #CapitalMarkets, #InvestmentSales, #CRE, #CommercialRealEstate

Several times M&A negotiations stall not because of unrealistic demands from the other side but because of ❗️uncommunicated assumptions about business performance and risks and ❗️lack of a data-driven negotiation process. Two examples from the past six months: 1️⃣ We represented a buyer team, involving a complex earnout scenario in an acquisition. Negotiations around valuation and deal structure began to stall because the target felt we were pushing for a structure that would penalize the target unfairly for post-close performance. 2️⃣ We represented a seller that believed in their forward performance. However the top few potential buyers were skeptical and didn't believe our client could hit the numbers. ✅ Solutions to both scenarios: 🎯Instead of negotiating with the other side in a vacuum, we built and shared a more detailed model with them with our drivers and our assumptions based on historical data and the customer pipeline. 🎯 The discussions moved from the abstract to collaboration on a shared set of numbers and business assumptions. 🎯 We were able to step through specific scenarios and have a much more nuanced, granular discussion, with each side using the same framework and model structure. 🎯And we were able to drive to a successful resolution in both deals. (This is NOT saying that you open everything to the other side. Knowing the parts of the model that should be shared for negotiation purposes and those that shouldn't be is critical). But sometimes the best path forward in "stuck deals" is throwing light on the data. #mergersandacquisitions

Yesterday, I was on a coaching call with one of my clients, and we worked together to revive a potential $100K upgrade opportunity. When she originally presented pricing, she hadn’t clearly laid out the quantifiable value to the CIO, so naturally, they declined the offer. But we turned things around. We reverse-engineered the potential time savings, productivity gains, and even the cost of a possible security breach 💡. I armed her with a deck to go back to the CIO with this data, making the investment a no-brainer, but first... She’s running discovery with key stakeholders to validate those metrics and gather quotes and data from them to strengthen the pricing conversation. 🔥 I had another situation where I was working with a Salesforce AE on an opportunity with a law firm. Once we slowed down and understood how many potential cases weren’t being followed up on, the value of those cases, and how much time lawyers and staff were wasting on admin tasks and manual processes, he was able to stand firm and close a $143K deal. Why? Because he had shown 3x that in business value. 💰 This gave him an extreme amount of confidence is his deal and his ability to push back in negotiations. This skill is essential at every level, especially if your goal is to progress in mid-market and ultimately enterprise. 🚀 Always, always remind your customers of the challenges you're solving and the business value tied to addressing them. Here's why it works: 1️⃣ It shifts the focus from cost to the return on their investment. Now the numbers make sense. 2️⃣ Execs who missed the meeting? No problem. They’ll get a clear picture of why their company is making this investment and the problems it solves when they review your deck. 3️⃣ You’ll be able to stand firm on pricing and protect the deal size. When the value is clear, the worth is undeniable. If you haven’t fully quantified the value, at least highlight the problems you're solving and what that unlocks for the customer. Do this, and you’ll see a major difference. Customers become more responsive, your ability to hold firm on pricing strengthens, and closing deals becomes that much easier. 💼 Too often, we get caught up in features and benefits and lose sight of what really matters – the business impact we’re driving. Stay focused on that, and you'll win.