“The first warehouse passed the rehearsal. If you can include the other two for the same THB 600,000, I can take it to the next approval meeting,” the operations director says. The ERP team has just shown that sales can pause order confirmations when reservation data arrives late. The team has yet to see inventory files from the other two warehouses. A yes now would commit the team to a price and a start date before it knows how much data cleanup is involved.
This is the same fictional distributor from The JOLT Effect episode. Warehouse A passed a rehearsal in the test environment. A pilot with live orders still needs approval. The numbers, terms, and conversations are illustrative. All amounts are service fees before tax.
In the 2011 edition of Getting to Yes, Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton describe four moves. Separate the people from the problem, find out what each side needs, develop options that can benefit both parties, and use objective criteria to reach an agreement. Let’s see how they work when the buyer and the ERP team bring different numbers to the table. Penguin Random House · Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
Find out why the buyer wants all three warehouses
ERP sales lead “If we start with Warehouse A and leave B and C on the current process for now, where would that cause trouble?”
Operations director “Rush orders can pull stock from more than one warehouse. If reps only see quantities from A, will they assume the other sites have nothing? Finance has also approved THB 600,000 for this budget cycle.”
The request makes sense once you see how rush orders move between warehouses. Asking about the workflow gives the ERP team two concrete issues to discuss. Sales needs to see where it can confirm availability in the ERP and where it still needs to call the warehouse. Finance has an approved budget for this cycle. The delivery team can explain its own constraint too. It needs to check file formats, product codes, and reservation feeds at B and C before promising go-live dates.
Compare two scopes and show the cost of the extra work
One option is to implement Warehouse A for THB 600,000 as originally scoped. In the meantime, make it clear to sales that orders drawing stock from B or C still require a call to the warehouse. Once the team has reviewed sample data from both sites, it can give the buyer a price and schedule for expanding.
Another option is one contract for all three warehouses with go-live dates based on data readiness. Suppose the delivery team estimates 200 extra hours × THB 1,500 = THB 300,000, bringing the total with Warehouse A to THB 900,000. That’s a working estimate. The teams still need to inspect the sample data, and the buyer needs approval for the additional budget before agreeing on a price.
Procurement “What’s behind the extra hours?”
Delivery lead “We’ve allowed time to match product codes, adapt the integration, and rerun tests for B and C. If their files follow the same format as A’s and we can reuse the integration, we’ll remove the duplicate work from the estimate and recalculate at the agreed rate.”
The estimate shows where the effort might go. The buyer and IT can check the assumptions against authorized sample files, integration test results, and a list of the work each site requires. If procurement compares the rate against another quote, use comparable scope and delivery responsibilities.
Tie payments to work the buyer can verify
Finance “If we start with A, can we pay 30% up front and hold the final payment until the warehouse team has checked the results with live orders?”
Delivery lead “We can do 30%, 40%, and 30%. The middle payment comes after your team signs off on the rehearsal against the written criteria. The final payment comes after the pilot results are reviewed and the Warehouse A implementation is accepted.”
| Milestone | Amount | Payment trigger in this example |
|---|---|---|
| Start of work, 30% | THB 180,000 | Sign the Warehouse A scope and name who prepares the data and who accepts the work. |
| Rehearsal passes, 40% | THB 240,000 | The warehouse manager and IT sign off on a rehearsal in the test environment using the Warehouse A setup delivered under the agreement. |
| Final acceptance, 30% | THB 180,000 | The operations director approves the pilot results and signs off on Warehouse A under the contract’s acceptance terms. |
The middle milestone uses the Warehouse A setup delivered after the project starts. The earlier rehearsal helped the teams choose what to test.
Write the criteria so someone outside the meeting can run the test. For example, the system should show a warning when a reservation update is more than five minutes late. Sales should pause the affected order confirmations. When the data arrives, warehouse staff should check that reserved and available-to-sell quantities match the expected values in the test cases before sales resumes confirmations. Five minutes is an example threshold agreed by sales, warehouse operations, and IT for this scenario.
Set a pilot window and name who can authorize the live-order pilot and who can stop it. If approval hasn’t come through by the agreed date, both sides review the schedule and final payment under the contract terms. At the end of the pilot, reconcile affected orders against the reservation records and close the issues the teams agreed would block use. If a test fails, document the fixes and schedule a retest. Before adding a warehouse or changing the criteria, agree in writing on any changes to the price and schedule.
What will you do if there’s no deal?
A BATNA, or Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, is the best realistic course of action if these talks end without a deal. If the buyer confirms that the existing process still works and has people available to check rush orders, it could keep that process for another budget cycle while collecting sample data from all three warehouses. Sales would still wait for warehouse confirmations, and the warehouse would still need staff to check availability. The vendor might assign its delivery team to another project with a confirmed start date if the schedule allows it. Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
Compare that alternative with the offer on the table. What would it cost? How much time would it take? What would it do to rush orders? If operations can’t staff those calls for another cycle, revisit whether waiting is workable. Starting at A is still an option on the table as long as the teams are considering a deal together.
A checklist before the next pricing conversation
- Write down each side’s request and ask what it needs to preserve in the budget, schedule, or workflow.
- Bring at least two options. For each one, list the warehouses in scope, work still to be estimated, and effects on price and schedule.
- Agree on which sample files, test results, and rates you’ll use to review the estimated hours together.
- Write down the amount for each payment, what must be delivered, who signs off, and what happens if the work needs a fix and retest.
- Name who approves the budget and the pilot, who can stop the pilot, and who must approve extra work before it begins.
- Check what each side can realistically do if there’s no agreement and what that alternative would cost.
Before sending the next quote, I’d ask operations one question. Can sales keep confirming availability by phone with B and C while Warehouse A uses the ERP? The answer tells you whether the THB 600,000 proposal does enough for this budget cycle.