Using Data in Negotiation Discussions

The fact that some sellers don’t leverage this data in 2026 genuinely saddens me… It’s 2026 and MOST sellers still have no idea who views their proposal - nor for how long, what sections they really care about, and if they can be upsold... ...and it's costing them deals. Here are just a few of the ways that you can use proposal analytics for your benefit… 1. Understand what your prospects care about Using these analytics tells you exactly which sections of your proposals your prospects are interacting with. This is SUPER HELPFUL in improving the relevancy of your follow-ups. For example, if they're spending more time on pricing (especially if they're directly adjusting it), that’s an indication you should lead with value or ROI in your follow-up. 2. Know the best time to follow-up Following up on your proposal at the right time can make or break a deal. With proposal analytics, you can get notified when your prospect interacts with your proposal, so you can follow up at just the right moment and (hopefully) win that deal! This can even work with closed lost deals - when someone opens a dead deal in Qwilr you will be notified instantly. 3. Identify decision-makers early Analytics can show you exactly who is engaging with your proposals. Spot when new stakeholders get involved, and reach out directly to answer any questions or address any of their concerns. 4. Accelerate your sales cycle By understanding how your prospect engages with every section of your proposal, you can quickly adapt your follow-up to meet their needs, cutting down the time spent on decision-making. No more wasting time with irrelevant questions and details. 5. Improve every proposal Proposal analytics provide feedback on what worked, what didn’t, and what needs adjusting. You can use these insights to continuously refine your proposals for stronger results in the future. Want to learn more about the data you can get with Qwilr? Head to https://getqwilr.com

Most negotiators lose deals because they divide value wrong.    In every deal, the big question is:    Who gets what?   Most people decide based on:    ❌ Who speaks the loudest  ❌ Who has more power  ❌ Who simply asks for more    But the best negotiators don’t guess.    They use Shapley Value:   A game theory concept that shows exactly how much each person should get based on their real contribution.    Here’s the problem:    Most negotiators assume their value is obvious.    It’s not.     Let’s say three companies form a partnership:    - One brings technology  - One brings customers - One brings funding   Who deserves the biggest share?    Instead of arguing, Shapley Value calculates each partner’s real impact.   ✅ What happens if one partner leaves?  ✅ How much does each person’s role increase the total success?  ✅ What’s their actual contribution in numbers?    This shifts the conversation from opinion to logic.    How to use this in negotiations:   (Step-by-Step)    🔹 Step 1: Identify all contributors   List out everyone involved in the deal:   - partners, - suppliers, - team members - anyone adding value.    🔹 Step 2: Define measurable contributions   Ask:   What does each person bring to the table?   Focus on revenue impact, risk reduction, efficiency, or access to key resources.    🔹 Step 3: Calculate impact if one party is removed   For each contributor, ask:    “If this person/company walked away, how much value would be lost?”   🔹 Step 4: Assign value based on actual impact   If one party is responsible for 40% of the success, they should get a 40% share.   Not just an equal split.    🔹 Step 5: Use this data to justify your position   Instead of saying, “I want 30%,”* say:    “Based on our contribution analysis, our role increases revenue by 30%, reduces risk by 20%, and improves efficiency by 25%. Our fair share should reflect that.”   This eliminates emotional arguments and forces negotiations to focus on real impact.    Bottom line:   Most people negotiate based on feelings.    The best negotiators prove their worth.   If you’re not using game theory in negotiations, you’re leaving money on the table.   P.S. How do you ensure fairness in your deals?    Drop your insights below. I’d love to hear your take.    ---------------------- Hi, I’m Scott Harrison and I help executive and leaders master negotiation & communication in high-pressure, high-stakes situations. - ICF Coach and EQ-i Practitioner - 24 yrs | 19 countries | 150+ clients  - Negotiation | Conflict resolution | Closing deals 📩 DM me or book a discovery call (link in the Featured section)

In sales, there are no Ari Golds. You have to be your own super agent. Here are 3 moves that will help you land that new dream job or negotiate a better territory: First, here’s some inspiration… In 2021, Kevin De Bruyne, a top Belgium footballer, negotiated a $132M contract with Manchester City…without an agent. 4 years ago, he used various analytics platforms to present his value to the club. The report headlined with: “De Bruyne’s output is amongst the best in the Premier League, particularly for chance creation metrics.” When comparing that output alongside the wages of other players, De Bruyne appeared underpaid compared to some of Europe’s top attacking players, who earned more than the Belgian but contributed far less according to the metrics. This landed him a 5-year, multi-million dollar contract with a hefty raise in his wages. To be your own super agent in sales, implement these 3 simple moves: 1. GET ORGANIZED Have regular strategic check-ins with yourself: - Annual strategy - Monthly updates - Weekly organization - Daily planning & reviews The insights you’ll be able to pull from these regular routines will be valuable. And they could be the difference between a new role or an improved comp plan that pays you hundreds of thousands more over the next 12 months. 2. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS There are 3 numbers that reign supreme in strategic sales: - Win rate - Deal size - Deal cycle As a part of the monthly update, dial in on these numbers and see how you’re tracking against your own performance. Use this 2-step system: → Pull in all Closed/Won opportunities into a single sheet to review your overall performance at a single glance → Create a new sheet for each month to drill into detailed metrics: – Win rate, average deal size, and average deal cycle – Start date and how many months you’re in the role – Total quota, bookings (ARR), and achievement – Number of logos and opportunities won – Number of logos and opportunities lost – Personal earnings and hourly rate Steal my Personal Sales Stats Matrix: https://buff.ly/3HE23oQ 3. CREATE YOUR NARRATIVE Dissect your wins and losses by writing out what you learned from each opportunity. Then, create a narrative around a smarter plan using these insights for the next quarter or year ahead. For instance, when I did this in my strategic sales role, I learned my best deals were in the Fortune 100 - 200 segment. That meant I could have an intelligent conversation with my leaders when they were pressing me to pursue bigger companies on the list. But without the data, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to ask for more accounts in my sweet spot range, which would have translated to slower deals, less revenue for the company, and lower commissions for me. Remember: Don't let your company drive the narrative. Let YOUR numbers tell the fully story. Just like Kevin (without the help of Ari Gold). 🐝

AI won’t make you a better negotiator by default. But used correctly, it can make negotiations more rational, fair, and far more valuable. I’ve shared a short PDF with practical principles for using AI in negotiation—not theory, not hype, and not tech for tech’s sake. Here’s a bit of context to help you use it well. 1. Start with the type of negotiation AI behaves very differently in positional versus collaborative negotiations. Feeding data into AI without first agreeing on the negotiation context is like calculating numbers without knowing the rules of the game. Precision without shared context rarely leads to good outcomes. 2. Use data to replace opinions, not people In collaborative negotiation, data becomes a shared language. I’ve seen teams stuck for weeks because both sides defended opinions instead of agreeing on the facts. AI helps most when it reduces bias and emotion—not when it’s used as a weapon to “win arguments.” 3. Model value, not just price Using AI only to optimize price is a missed opportunity. The real power is in uncovering asymmetric value, trade-offs, and joint gains—the areas where one side’s cost is another side’s benefit. That’s where negotiations evolve from squeezing to creating. 4. Let AI optimize—humans decide AI can simulate scenarios and highlight options. But it can’t own relationships, accountabilities, or consequences. I’ve seen negotiators hide behind AI recommendations instead of leading with judgment and ethics. That’s a mistake. 5. Protect trust like currency Ask yourself: Are you willing to share the same data you expect from the other side? If the answer is no, AI will amplify mistrust instead of value creation. Trust isn’t soft—it’s a measurable economic driver. If you want to go deeper: Watch my LinkedIn Learning course “Boosting Your Negotiation Skills with Generative AI” — the step-by-step framework that helps you use AI to support your negotiation thinking and outcomes (not just automate tasks). https://lnkd.in/ggx5AExQ (LinkedIn) Get my new book 'The SMART Negotiator': Unlocking the Power of AI and Human Insight in Effective Deal-Making(Wiley) — the first book that combines behavioral negotiation research with practical guidance on how humans and AI can create more value together. https://lnkd.in/gK-z5cwz (LinkedIn) The PDF is designed as a practical checklist for leaders, procurement, sales, legal, and anyone experimenting with AI in negotiations. AI doesn’t negotiate. People do. AI just makes their choices more visible. #negotiation #AI BMI Executive Institute The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School #procurement #contract World Commerce & Contracting AAU Executive - MBA and HD at Aalborg University Tine Anneberg Moïse NOUBISSI Juan Manuel García P. Gražvydas Jukna Jason Myrowitz Tiffany Kemp Said A. ,(MBA, EFQM)

As an exec, if your own AI journey is still happening 'through other people', this is for you. Sure, you’ve got teams. You can delegate. You can buy tools. But doing one small workflow end-to-end yourself builds the instinct you need when proposals land on your desk. You can still delegate the hardening and scale-up afterwards. But not the first learning. Here are 4 practical AI projects if you are one of the below: 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 Pain: Renewal risk shows up late. Signals sit across email, support and meeting notes. Build (workflow + tools): Use Outlook + Teams + Excel + Copilot. Pull the last 30 days of account emails, last QBR notes, top support themes (export), and a simple usage snapshot if available. Ask Copilot for a 1-page “Renewal Risk Brief” per top 10 accounts: risk level, evidence, and next 2 actions. v1 takes 2–3 hours, then ~10 mins per account. Benefit: Earlier intervention, better renewal planning, fewer surprises. 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Pain: Vendor comparisons get messy fast. Key exclusions and renewal traps are easy to miss. Build (workflow + tools): Use SharePoint + Excel + Copilot. Drop proposals into a SharePoint folder, set 10 comparison criteria in Excel, then have Copilot extract pricing assumptions, exclusions, renewal terms and key risks into the table. Ask it to draft a negotiation brief: 3 pressure points and 3 give-gets. Plan 3–4 hours for a clean first pass. Benefit: Cleaner selection decisions and stronger negotiation posture. 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗹 Pain: First-pass contract review is repetitive, but response time expectations keep shrinking. Build (workflow + tools): Use SharePoint + Word + Copilot. Create a SharePoint folder for your clause library and a short playbook (acceptable vs not). For each contract draft, ask Copilot to summarise deviations from your standard, and propose edits using your approved language. Setup is 2–3 hours. Benefit: Faster triage, more consistency, and time saved for the genuinely hard judgement calls. 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳 / 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 Pain: Weekly alignment suffers because updates live in too many places and the “so what” doesn’t get written down. Build (workflow + tools): Use Teams + OneNote + Copilot. Create one page called “Weekly Exec Brief”. Drop in metrics, customer news, delivery risks, people topics. Ask Copilot for: a 5-bullet narrative, decisions needed this week, and open loops with owners. Setup is 60–90 mins, then ~20 mins weekly if inputs stay disciplined. Benefit: A tighter exec rhythm and clearer decision/action tracking. These are deliberately small. The point isn’t to “transform the company”. It’s to build one real thing in an afternoon, in tools you already trust, and learn AI by doing. I’ll demonstrate each of these in practical detail, step-by-step, so you can replicate them quickly. Follow along if this series helps.

Cost-Saving Methodology — Step-by-Step Action Plan 1️⃣ Spend analysis • Pull 12–24 months of purchase or consumption data. • Build a master spend table: Item code | Description | Category | Qty | Unit price | Supplier | Lead time | Quality. 2️⃣ Category mapping • Group SKUs into categories (forgings, machined shafts, bearings, fasteners, etc.). • Run a Pareto to identify top SKUs driving spend (top 20 → ~80%). • Use the Kraljic Matrix to classify items: Non-critical, Leverage, Bottleneck, Strategic. Action: apply a tailored cost strategy by category. 3️⃣ Supplier segmentation • Tag SKUs as Single-source / Multi-source / Long-tail. • Track % spend single-source, % multi-source & % suppliers long-tail, 4️⃣ Multi-sourced items — award by value • Choose suppliers on cost + quality + delivery and assign Share-Of-Business (e.g., 60/40). • Capture savings immediately and enforce SOB in purchase execution. • Optional: run a reverse auction for price discovery. 5️⃣ Single-source items — de-risk & negotiate • Scout apple-to-apple alternate suppliers and qualify backups. • Engage supplier top management — show long-term business potential. • Negotiate turnover discounts, or unit-cost reductions on the basis of long-term business potential. If alternatives don’t exist: secure stronger contractual protections & better terms with the incumbent. 6️⃣ Long-tail consolidation • Identify many small suppliers creating excess PO load. • Consolidate to 2–3 preferred suppliers per micro-category using blanket orders and bundling. Offer consolidated volumes in exchange for better pricing and service. 7️⃣ Negotiation playbook • Prepare checklist: current price, target price, comparable quotes, TCO, BATNA. • Use levers: volume bundling, multi-year contracts, reverse auctions. • Include non-price asks: consignment, VMI, improved payment terms. Goal: consistent, repeatable wins. 8️⃣ Engineering & supplier collaboration • Create cross-functional cost-down teams (Procurement + Engineering + Quality + Supplier). • Target DFM opportunities: material swaps, tolerance rationalisation, part consolidation. etc • Run supplier Kaizen workshops and agree on shared-savings models.

#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

“They’re not going to budge from their first offer.” “They will, but let’s dig into the data first.” From an initial client call last year. 6 weeks later a new carrier agreement was signed. With a 10%+ improvement from the first proposal. There was a lot going on here. Let me take you through it. ----- BACKGROUND There was good reason for the opening quote. This was an agreement renewal. [not a competitive bid] The active agreement expired in < 3 months. Initial offer = 10%+ year 1 increase And more than that in years 2-4. The carrier painted the picture of: Increased operating costs + “aggressive” existing discounts = 10%+ rate increase A public narrative was there to support it. [albeit a weak one] But I assured my client this wasn’t the case. And dug in. PROCESS Agreement audit + data analysis = opportunity The initial proposal was grossly misaligned with this shipper’s package volume and revenue. -Surcharge discount decreases (that’s bad) -Minimum charge increases (also bad) -Unrealistic revenue commitments -Punitive termination terms -Rate cap removal You get the idea. And this was a long-standing customer. An aggressive reduction/mitigation target was set. [given the circumstances] Discount and agreement term targets were prioritized. A negotiation and communication #strategy was developed. And the clock was ticking. <2 months until expiration. RESULTS ✔️ Wiped out a proposed 10%+ increase [<1% savings in year 1] ✔️ New surcharge discounts ✔️ Surcharge discount retention ✔️ Improved agreement terms ✔️ Rate cap retention TAKEAWAYS 1. There’s always room to negotiate from the first offer [a lot of room if it’s UPS and FedEx] 2. Parcel data + market expertise = results 3. Work with a trusted consultant to do the heavy lifting [so you can make decisions] #data #consultants #ecommerce

I see lots of different rate structures at ShipScience, and it always amazes me how the combination of small, negotiated changes can add up to transformative savings. Knowing what I know now, here's how I would approach negotiations as an e-comm exec: 1) Before you even start negotiating, get a tight grip on the data. Have a way to run a savings analysis before you begin and at each proposal. Do not just accept the analysis your carrier provides you. Trust but verify. This is a MUST. Analyze average weights, package sizes, and common delivery zones helps you catch patterns—like surcharges or zones that inflate costs. Dial those in operationally, negotiate where you need to.   Monitor historical carrier performance. If certain routes or services keep driving up charges, consider alternative carriers or service levels.  If SLAs are below expectations, use that to your advantage in negotiations. Go way deeper than just your "discounts". Surcharges are critically important to measure/track impact. You also need to know the hard-to-calculate factors like DIM divisor impact and minimum billable impact. Those will often void your deep, short-zone discounts. 2) Negotiate proactively, and keep a tight timeline. Know that everything on your rate card is negotiable. Provide exact details on every element you want the carrier to move on, and requested discounts for each. Ask carriers to outline the thresholds for bonus discounts or waived fees - usually you can get wins by offering upside to the carriers.  3) Review your packaging. Oversized or loosely packed boxes may push you into a higher price bracket. Sturdier, right-sized parcels mean fewer damage claims and improved carrier relationships.  4) Generate maximum (friendly) negotiation leverage. Carriers should know that you're rate shopping shipments and working with multiple carriers. Check your existing contract terms here, but try to manage your carriers into an annual review cycle, giving them the opportunity to earn significantly more business each year with big improvements to their rates. Watch out for trap doors in contractual language - carriers are know to have tricky legal language in their contracts. Make sure that all concessions you give have benefit back to you. And be sure not to lock yourself it unnecessarily, as you'll lose leverage in future negotiations. By focusing on these preventive measures, you’ll protect your budget while boosting delivery reliability. #Shipping #Logistics #Parcel #UPS #FedEx #CostSavings #Business #Ecommerce #Transportation #SupplyChain