In this assignment, you will practice your business development skill as you evaluate approaches and develop a strategy to approach negotiations between a business and a federal government agency. This assignment follows up on the strategies you described in the Week 7 activity.
Scenario
You are the lead contract negotiator of a small women-owned company that specializes in providing building security using retired military personnel. You have been tasked with acquiring a contract with a medium-sized agency within the federal government that is looking to expand its small business contracting opportunities. The length of the contract will be five years. As the lead negotiator, you are aware of the size of the U.S. government and the strength of its negotiating power. You are also aware of the break-even point that your company would need to reach to make a profit. Your main goal during your negotiation session is to write a contract that enables your company to make a profit on the services you are selling.
Instructions
Write a 6–8 page paper in which you:
- Develop at least five selling points for your negotiating team to overcome potential objections on the price or quality of your company’s service. Develop the selling points based on research into two of your company’s main competitors: United Security Incorporated and Tyco Integrated Security. You may continue to use the research guidance provided in Week 6.
- Recommend the most effective approach to researching the negotiators representing the government and the government’s overall operations. Support the recommendation with an analysis of key approaches to this research.
- Select the negotiating gambit that you believe will be most successful. Support your selection based on an analysis of three possible negotiating gambits.
- Describe the essential steps that you would advise your negotiation team to take in opening the negotiation session with the U.S. government negotiators.
- Outline at least two reasons why it is important to write the contract resulting from negotiations rather than allowing the other side’s team to write the contract.
- Explain how observing and interpreting specific body language attributes during negotiations will help your team overcome obstacles and objections in the negotiations.
- Use at least three sources to support your writing.
