Nermine Shaker

Principal Consultant
Abilita Telecom Consultants
nshaker@abilita.com

Everyone has to negotiate at one stage or another in his or her life. These negotiations could be in the form of promotions, sales calls, and more for individuals, while for companies it could be in the form of contracts, business deals and cost management. The thumb rules of most negotiations remain the same although the situation, process and result may be different.

Negotiation: Basic Techniques

1. This is the most important aspect of any negotiation – Never go unprepared to any negotiation. Understand the subject, your benefits and losses and how the outcome will affect you or the organization.

2. Understand what the other party may tend to ask or believe in, to have the edge over the decision. Get as much information as possible on their stance on the subject, what they are looking for and also what they are expecting from you in the offer. Understand the rationale behind their negotiation to get a better insight into their negotiation tactics.

3. Know the least you may need to settle for without incurring losses. You can also treat this as a yardstick to build up your negotiation tactics.

4. Show an openness, flexibility and willingness to talk about the negotiation.

5. Calmness and patience should be your armor while negotiating. If you sense that you are losing control of the situation or yourself, take a break. Decisions made in anger almost always are wrong.

6. Be as clear as possible with your terms and conditions.

7. If you have the slightest doubt that someone is bluffing, insist on their providing the proof to support their claims.

8. Stressing on the common goals is a good way of keeping the negotiations workable.

9. Listen attentively to understand better.

10. Concentrate on one particular issue at a time.

11. Do not consider negotiations as a win or lose proposition or that to win you have to take advantage of the other party. Remember negotiations are the basis of a long and hopefully fruitful relationship. Carrying over the animosity by cheating or taking advantage of each other will lead you nowhere.

12. If the offer seems even remotely acceptable to you, finalize the deal immediately. Do not give the other party a chance to ponder over things.

Contract Negotiations

Contract negotiation is an intrinsic part of any business and is applied to almost every aspect. This is especially true with telecom, since telecom expense management is vital to control business expenses. Communication is the basis and essence of good business relationship and thus communication expenses is one of the top five expenditures incurred in running a business. This is why the bottom line of any successful business venture lies in good communication controlled by telecom expense management.

Unfortunately, small and medium businesses do not consider contract negotiation on this issue, as they are short on human resources in this field. Normally, various people such as the office manager or the engineer or the IT personnel and sometimes even the HR department handle the communications department. As most of them are skilled professionals only in their fields, their knowledge and experience in terms of telecom contract negotiation is quite limited. Thus the need to acquire or operate through a telecom network is never considered.

By adopting and implementing telecom contract negotiation, discipline and control techniques, on an average a company can save 10 to 30 percent of their annual telecom expense. In fact, most successful businesses use their experience and negotiation skills to haggle over the telecom contract price. But a professional in telecom expense management carries certain requisites to the table that a non-telecom professional may not have. People experienced in telecom contract negotiation know that the rate is not the only devil; in fact much more lies in the terms and conditions of the contract. Further, a telecom consultant or auditor dealing regularly in contracts would know the telecom rates trap better.

The best way to know your telecom network requirement is to perform a thorough circuit and services inventory of local and distant data and wireless devices that you have and whether it is being fully utilized. Break down your telecom expenses to the minutest detail and understand the trend and need for modifying, changing or stopping any service utilized.  

Also consider the refunds and benefits (and loss) from reducing services. Such a telecom audit will help uncover the truths of funds not recovered on invoice errors, lower certain ongoing expenses and reveal techniques to improve or optimize existing telecom network. Getting this done from experienced telecom auditors will reap you richer benefits.  

The next task is to eliminate unused phone lines. On an average a company with a 100 employee workforce has plenty of phone lines and some of them may remain unused over a period of time while the company is still paying the minimum payable for the service, which itself would run into hundreds of dollars annually. Negotiating a workable deal with the telephone company is the solution for this problem.

About the author:

Nermine Shaker has a M.S. in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University with more than twenty years of experience in planning, implementing, managing and consulting on telecommunications projects. Ms. Shaker has generated millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Principal Consultant at Abilita. 

Nermine can be reached at (310) 793-0711 or nshaker@abilita.com