Skip to main content

BOP, MOP and Stop Negotiations

One of the clients I worked with wanted a refresher course on negotiation. And not the full page ad like you see in the airline magazines next to the ad for; “even cheaper and just as effective” noise cancelling headphones. They specifically asked for a catchy outline that sales people can even remember.

So I negotiated a fee and introduced them to the BOP, MOP and STOP method. Now I am not a negotiating expert but have negotiated comprehensive agreements with HP, Boeing, Intel, Fannie Mae, Lockheed Martin, etc. So I get it. Here is the mindset I proffered to be taken into every negotiation;

BOP; is defined as the Best Outcome Possible, highest price paid for the product/service one can conceive to be realistic under perfect circumstances.

MOP; is the Minimal Outcome Possible or the lowest price you will accept for your product and service in a negotiated agreement.

STOP; is any number below MOP that is unacceptable value and you walk away from the negotiation.

Now I purposefully omitted BAFO (Best and Final Offer) as this is MOP and is, under no circumstances, negotiated. If a negotiator moves off of BAFO, BAFO then becomes a Basically Almost Final Offer. Moving off BAFO also makes a negotiator look Baffled, Acquiescent, Flexible, and Obtuse.

Walking away is the toughest part of the negotiation process which is why the door should be left open via some time constraint placed on the offer or negotiating time for the offer. And do not extend the terms for the offer. This saps positional power from you. If an offer expires it can be regenerated, reworked, re-offered or removed.

Buyers, especially in enterprise software often take the same courses (literally) as software sales people. What you are formally trained to do, they are formally trained to undue. I hear some objections so regularly it seems as if all buyers go to the same course (they do);

“We do not have that much in the budget.”
“I get ‘X’ percent off from another vendor you compete with.”
“Your competition did ‘Y’ and I expect you want to match.”
“Our corporate policy is to only….(insert discount request here).”

A mentor of mine put it best;

“The worst outcome, the absolute worse outcome, is they continue not to buy from you.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When the Details are the Devil

Nice turn of phrase and very appropriate for a client I am working with. The client is growing; in fact it is growing so fast it has decided to implement process to handle the growth. The process is so detailed that it is actually slowing growth and in some areas, forcing a decline in growth. So I was asked why. The why was very straightforward to discover. You have a sub-$10M company implementing the same process as a $3B company. Not only is the process decisioneered beyond rational thought, it is so complex that asking a single person to manage it is crippling. For example; When a company sells a product that adds onto or works with another product, infrastructure, or application the process should reflect the “aftermarket” nature of this business. Look at Home Depot. They do not sell houses, but they sell about every aftermarket part and piece for homes (and outside the home) you can imagine. And they make no bones about it. One does not go to home depot to re-engineer their house ...

Healing After Surgery - The Neo Age Way

On January 22nd of the year of the hare I wiped out on my road bike and managed to implement a Class III separation of my Acromioclavicular Joint (AC Joint). For us lay persons that is a joint in your shoulder. On February 2 (also year of the hare) I had the joint surgically repaired and have been recovering ever since, and let me tell you it hurts. One part of the healing process is the unsolicited advice on healing from all persons who you may call friends or at least call acquaintances. Thought I would share some of the suggestions I get from my unpaid group of advisors on healing my shoulder: I call them my ill-advisors, that is people who tell me they know someone who had something similar to what I am going through and they have the best 'cure.' Here are the best so far: Vitamin D3 - or calciol which is a form of Vitamin D structurally similar to steroids and has all kinds of good benefits for healing, except it's poisonous in large doses. Acupuncture - c'mon you ...

It's all downhill from here...

It is said that every dog has its day. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. An apple a day. Dip it don't soak it. You're eyes will get stuck like that. Two men enter one man leaves. Would you like that super sized. Live in the moment. The journey is the reward (and they are touring again). Good men are hard to find. A bird in hand. Every rose has its thorn. Hold your horses. Take it down a notch. Pin your ears back. You can’t take it with you. Don’t pick at it. Pick your battles. Pick your poison. An ounce of prevention. This goes to eleven. Open the pod bay doors. I’ll be back. Phone home. Show me the money. Plastics. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. You can’t handle the truth. There’s no place like home. Stupid is as stupid does. Don’t stop believing. Don’t tug on Superman’s cape. Two out of three ain’t bad. Finally a broken clock is right twice a day and stop - Hammertime. It is with tremen...