Contract (Re) Negotiations

When negotiating large complex service agreements, the deck is stacked against you from the beginning. You want to minimize your costs. Your vendors want to maximize their revenues and margins.  Although (usually) very civil, make no mistakes; it’s a street fight and your vendors don't play fair.  Optelcon can stack the deck back in your favor.

  • How do you know if the offered terms are as good as your competitors?
  • How do you know what terms were never offered to you in the first place?
  • How do you know if your avoiding the “gotchas”?
  • How do you make sure your business is not going to be penalized in the event of a down turn in business?
  • How do you make sure the SLAs have enough “teeth”?
  • How do you make sure there are pathways to upgrade technologies without penalty?
  • How do you get the ability to have your rates readjusted with the market during the term?

Regardless of the size and competency of your company's procurement team, there are some certain unavoidable market dynamics, which can lead to a less than optimal cost structure, including:

  • Frequency of renewals. Large service contracts are typically only negotiated every 2-3 years. (A lifetime in business).
  • Rapidly changing vendors. (Mergers & acquisitions, bankruptcies, start-ups).
  • Rapidly changing market pricing. (Pricing changes from year to year, month to month, day to day and even deal by deal).
  • Limited market pricing visibility. (Your team only sees what vendors want to show you).
  • Individual Case Basis "ICB" pricing. (Factors such as a sales team needing to make a quota shortfall, heavy competition, negotiating skill and other factors can have dramatic difference in pricing from deal to deal.  The terms and pricing of these special deals are not typically propagated throughout your vendors various sales teams, so it is unlikely even your account team knows of them.)
  • Rapidly changing technology and delivery models. (New technologies are constantly being developed which can improve your service and reduce your cost).

These are only some of the challenges and questions facing your procurement team.

Sales reps want to close your business.  Their management however wants to keep their margins as high as possible. Optelcon understands that the process your sales team goes through in selling the approval of special pricing and terms to their management team.  In many ways it is more difficult than selling to their clients.   Optelcon professionals have years of sales experience on the other side of the table, so we know exactly what is needed for your sales team to get special pricing approved.  We will provide your vendor's sales team with the information needed for them to get your special pricing approved quickly.

We look at a significant number of multi-million dollar contracts each year and have developed a database of the best negotiated terms and RFP responses from each contract and vendor.  In many cases, the most important terms, are the ones the vendor leaves out.   Optelcon will work with your team to  identify any special needs your company might have and incorporate these into your agreements.  By pulling from a well vetted menu of key terms, conditions and SLA’s, Optelcon can shorten the negotiating cycle by months. Optelcon understands how important your vendors are.  Optelcon has developed a number of negotiating strategies and techniques which have been proven to not only improve your terms and costs with your vendors, but your relationship as well.

With over 23 years of experience and over $1 Billion dollars in successfully negotiated contracts, Optelcon can give your company a competitive edge.  Even if you are in the middle of a multi-year contract, Optelcon can help.  Over 40% of the contracts that Optelcon successfully re-negotiates a cost savings for, have over 1.5 years remaining in the term.

Optelcon's primary goal and compensation is linked directly to reducing your costs while maintaining or improving quality.

Contact Optelcon today and start improving your bottom line tomorrow.