Roleplay — The Renewal — 20% or Tender

ROLEPLAY

The Renewal: Twenty Percent or Tender

Your counterpart is a procurement director with a mandate to squeeze you. Hold the line — conditionally.

The situation. You are the account director for a software and services contract worth €480,000 a year. It renews in six weeks. Your client’s new procurement director — famously tough — has opened with a demand: 20% off, or the contract goes to tender. Your finance team has given you a hard floor: anything below a 12% effective discount destroys the margin. You do, however, have things to trade: contract length, payment terms, a support-tier upgrade, and a migration package normally sold separately.

🎯 Your mission in the roleplay:

Open by acknowledging their position without conceding anything (“That may well be true, even so…”).
Make every concession conditional — use might, could well, provided that, on the understanding that.
Trade at least two non-price items (term, payment days, support tier, migration) before touching the price.
Name your walk-away point once, clearly and calmly, when pushed past it.
Close by letting the other side win the story: give them a saving they can report upstairs.

This is your rehearsal: practise the conversation here as many times as you like. You will speak for real in the Final Speaking Assignment at the end of the course.

When you have practised enough and you have had your feedback, click Complete & continue to move on. There is no time limit — go a few rounds until it feels natural.