Do you feel it is not a good deal? Or do you think you should be negotiating for more? Maybe because you think that's what you should be doing or you believe they expect you to do so?
If the deal feels good and you feel great then why the second guess?
Jerry Weinberg has a great statement on this: set your price so that you're happy either way.
In other words, set it high enough that if they say yes, you feel good about how much money you're making, and if they say no, it's a relief because you wouldn't have wanted that deal anyway.
I found this helpful because you can answer it yourself (without any market info, which can be hard to get sometimes) and it's optimized for making you feel good.
If you won't be happy with $Well-Justified-Price + $Extra because you feel they may have offered higher, then either your $Well-Justified-Price or your $Extra is too low, since you obviously wouldn't be happy with that amount anyway. If you feel the real $Well-Justified-Price + $Extra is higher than what they'd pay, then obviously you're not going to be happy with any outcome, so why are you wasting your time on this deal? The whole point of $Well-Justified-Priceis that its a good amount that you would happily walk away with and $Extra is exactly that - an added bonus. If they would have paid higher, good for them, they've got a discount, but you just walked away with an amount you decided would make you happy PLUS an added bonus.
Don't worry that they might have offered more. Be happy. If you can't be happy with that amount, you did the find a price you'd be happy with part wrong.
(Obviously not directed at parent, but rather agreeing with parent)
That's great until the person you're selling to immediately jumps on that. At this point, you are left wondering, "Gee, was my offer that good? Was it too low? I wonder what he was expecting to pay. Damn, I could have made 20% more had he made the first offer." Same goes the other way around. The trick is to have both people negotiating to leave feeling as if they won. In your case, you will leave feeling as if you lost.
I'm glad to hear someone who likes to negotiate talk about the downsides of getting too good of a deal. It's a dimension too often ignored by people who forget that if the other guy isn't happy you might end up with far worse of a product/service/employee, etc.
There are even times when it makes sense to pay more than the asking price for better service or for the long term sustainability of the deal.
People like to feel like they got a deal. They want to be able to go back to their boss and tell how they talked you down from $250/hr to $200/hr. Why not pad your pricing to begin with and let them feel like they won? This is particularly important for dealing with people for big corporations where buyers are evaluated on their ability to squeeze vendors. In the end, you'll still get the price you need but you can leave them with that warm fuzzy feeling that you gave them special treatment because you value their business so much.
This is completely backward. Your perceived worth is tied to your price. You will literally get better treatment and more respect by negotiating a better price.
Not negotiating just makes you look like you don't understand business and shouldn't be trusted with any business decisions.
You really want them to refuse your initial price and haggle. Then you know you're getting a good deal and couldn't have got any more. A little research and justification goes a long way.
It's an odd pricing scheme. So my potential negotiator gets paid more if they negotiate a higher price? Don't we want the motivation to work the other way around?
Name a price that you're happy with + 75%. Justify it as best you can (good arguments will be repeated internally). Let them talk you down a bit, if they want. Be prepared to truly walk away. If they offer your price + something then take it and be happy -- sign on the dotted line.
As with every negotiation it's not about what the seller (you) want, but what the buyer is possibly willing and able to pay. Look at their ROI. If it is positive, they will buy. Your goal is to take as much as possible of that ROI for yourself. So it's really about being well-informed about those numbers and then just explaining them, sticking to it and walking out, if necessary.
You have 1 offer. You're quite likely to get a much better offer (by either the current oferee (?) or another one), with just a few weeks of work.
Shop around, for real.
"Has (without saying so) implied that they make an offer and that is it" -> standard negotiation practice.
Shop around, even if "selling" isn't your strong point.
Practically, tell them you need some time to think this through. Then, when you have another offer (either better or worse), tell them very briefly: "We've had another offer. We don't want to turn this into a bidding war. We need some more time to think about our next steps." (Of course you want to turn this into a bidding war.)
I once got an offer for a startup out of the blue, just after I decided I was tired of it (karma!). I was going to take it. My girlfriend told me to ask for 50% more, and they gave it to me with only a little pushback. I could have likely gotten double.
3x revenue in STOCK sounds like a BAD deal. 3x revenue basically means: if they pretty much abandon the whole thing and let it run out a few years, they'll still make money. If they offer you just 3x revenue, it should be cash.
Ask for 6 time revenue in cash, as your counteroffer.
If you're really doing well and in a growing market, I'll offer you 3x revenue in cash myself, that'd be a steal.
When you pull the old "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." routine every few weeks, just being a moderately good deal isn't good enough because you can't trust that you will actually get the deal that they say they are offering.
They gave you everything you asked for. I don't see a reason for you to be miffed, unless it is at yourself. If someone else managed to negotiate a better deal, that's not a transaction that you were involved in or should concern yourself with.
Perhaps the the founder is complaining about the guy because he isn't receiving the value from the sales guy that he feels he should based on what it cost him. If so, that will sort itself out, eventually.
I'd ask myself this question, "Would I be happy with the deal I have if I didn't know about the deal the sales guy has"? If the answer is yes, then just stay where you are and work to make good things happen.
If the deal feels good and you feel great then why the second guess?
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