negotiation-concession-planner

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: negotiation-concession-planner
description: Builds a pre-negotiation concession plan for a pricing or contract conversation - every tradeable lever priced by cost-to-us vs value-to-them, tiered, each give paired with a required reciprocal get and its approval level, plus a BATNA-based walk-away. Covers B2B (terms, scope, service, risk, price protection) and B2C (bundles, financing, trade allowance). Use whenever the user mentions a discount request, procurement, redlines, give-get trades, walk-away point, or "the buyer wants 20% off", even without the word negotiation. Do NOT use for quantifying the value (mbfinotti/sales-skills@deal-value-calc) or scripting price rebuttals (mbfinotti/sales-skills@sales-objection-handling).
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Maya-Beth Finotti
  version: "1.4.8"
---

# Concession Planner

Produce a pre-call concession plan: a tiered ledger of what the seller can trade, priced by cost-to-us vs value-to-them, every give paired with a required reciprocal get and the approval level it needs, bounded by a written walk-away line.

A concession plan is a preparation artifact, not an in-call improvisation. Mid-negotiation, emotional engagement degrades judgment of relative value - so the gives, the gets, the prices, and the limits get written before the conversation starts.

## Interview

Ask before planning. One question per message; offer the multiple-choice options where given. Skip anything already answered by prior context.

1. What are you selling, and at what price point is the deal on the table?
2. Is this B2B or B2C, and which segment: (a) enterprise, (b) SMB / mid-market, (c) consumer?
3. Who is the counterpart: (a) the decision maker, (b) procurement / purchasing, (c) a champion or influencer without final authority, (d) unknown?
4. What has the buyer actually asked for so far: (a) a price discount, (b) better terms - payment, contract length, risk, (c) more scope for the same price, (d) nothing yet, but you expect pushback?
5. What is your discount authority band, and who approves beyond it? Treat the existing approval matrix as an input - this skill never designs it.
6. Which non-price levers can you move: term length, payment timing, scope or volume, service level, risk terms (uptime, credits, liability), price protection, bundled goods?
7. What do you want in return: (a) references, case study, or logo rights, (b) prepay or multi-year, (c) a faster signature date, (d) referrals or introductions, (e) larger scope?
8. What is your walk-away alternative if no deal happens - the next-best use of the same time, capacity, or inventory?
9. By what date must this land, and whose date is it: (a) theirs, (b) yours, including your own quarter-end, (c) neither's?
10. Do you want a one-off win here, or a position that holds? A concession granted once tends to be expected forever - every renewal starts from it, and your other buyers hear about it. (a) close this one at almost any structure, (b) protect the baseline for the renewal and the deals after it.
11. What is your effort ceiling: delivery capacity you can actually commit, approvals you can realistically get in the time available (deal desk, finance, legal), and how much of this you can take back later?

Re-rank the inventory against those three answers before building the ledger, and say which answer moved what:

- A hard, near date promotes the fast-acting levers - cash timing, service access, a delivery commitment - and demotes multi-year structures that need approvals you cannot collect in time.
- A "protect the baseline" answer demotes the headline discount and every price-protection lever, since both are permanent by construction. "Close it now" is the only answer that promotes them above their tier.
- A low effort ceiling **deletes** levers rather than demoting them: anything needing legal or deal-desk sign-off you cannot get, anything creating delivery work you cannot staff. Strike them from the ledger and name which ones you str