What Your Supplier's Sales Team Knows That You Don't

Most advice about supplier negotiation for small businesses is written by people who have never sat opposite an account manager with a target to hit. It tends to be generic — get three quotes, don't accept the first price, read the small print.

This is different. Kyriaki Chaldaiou has spent her career on the buying side, most recently responsible for an annual spend portfolio of around £100 million across telecommunications and technology. We asked her what actually happens on the other side of the table, and how much of it translates when you are a twenty-person business rather than a multinational.

---

What's the biggest contract you've ever negotiated, and what was actually at stake?

I would distinguish between the largest single contract and the largest portfolio. My largest documented responsibility was an annual spend portfolio of approximately £100 million. Within telecommunications, I also led major regional negotiations covering critical IT platforms, network services and software licences across several Southern European markets.

What was at stake was rarely just the headline value. With a platform replacement or software migration, the real risks are operational continuity, customer impact and becoming dependent on the wrong technology or commercial model.

A low first-year price can hide licence escalation, implementation charges, minimum commitments and an expensive exit. That is why contract management begins during the negotiation — not after signature. You need to consider the entire lifecycle: implementation, performance, change, renewal, termination and transition to another supplier.

What's the difference between how you thought supplier negotiation worked before you started, and how it actually works?

With an engineering background, I initially thought that if the requirements and commercial analysis were correct, the rational answer would be obvious.

Experience taught me that negotiation also involves incentives, relationships, timing, internal politics and risk appetite. The person opposite you may agree with your position but still be unable to obtain approval from finance, legal or the product organisation.

The other major lesson was that value is not only won at the negotiating table. It is very easily lost after signature.

You can negotiate an excellent contract, but if nobody records the obligations, monitors the service levels or acts before the renewal deadline, the theoretical value never reaches the business.

When an account manager sits down opposite you, what's happening on their side that a small business owner wouldn't know about?

The account manager is managing an internal negotiation as well as the one with you.

They may be measured on revenue, margin, renewals, contract duration or a particular product line. A software supplier may be trying to migrate customers to a new licensing model. A connectivity provider may be rewarded for multi-year commitments. An infrastructure supplier may want entry into a new market or permission to use you as a reference.

Behind the account manager are several approval points. Sales leadership may approve discounts, finance protects margin, legal controls risk and the delivery team may resist demanding implementation dates or service levels.

Ask: "Who else needs to approve this proposal, what matters to them, and how long will that approval take?" That gives you a much better map of the real negotiation.

Is there really a discount ladder? How much room does an account manager typically have?

Most established suppliers have approval thresholds, although they differ considerably by category.

An account manager may be able to move a few percentage points before requiring approval from a sales director. The next level may involve finance or a commercial committee. Anything affecting strategic pricing, liability or long-term margin may go considerably higher.

But percentages are deceptive. A large discount from an inflated software list price may still be a poor deal. In hardware, construction or operational services, a two or three per cent movement may be commercially significant.

I prefer to explore all the variables. Can we improve the price by consolidating licences, standardising the specification or changing the implementation sequence? What happens if we offer a longer commitment? Can implementation charges, support costs or annual increases be reduced?

Every concession should be documented. Six months later, you should not be relying on somebody's memory of what was agreed in the room.

"I'll have to get approval for that" — when is that real and when is it a technique?

It is frequently real. Account managers generally cannot approve major discounts, unusual service credits, substantial liability changes or fundamental amendments to intellectual-property provisions.

But approval can also become an invisible negotiating partner who always says no.

I ask specific questions: "Who is the approver? What concern do you expect them to have? When will the request be considered? If approval is granted, are the other commercial terms agreed?"

That final question prevents the supplier obtaining a concession from you and then reopening other issues.

I also keep a clear negotiation record: what was requested, what was offered, what remains open and who owns the next action. That is basic contract governance before the contract even exists.

Does the month you buy in genuinely change the price?

It can, particularly in technology and telecommunications.

Month-end may matter, quarter-end usually matters more, and financial year-end can create the strongest pressure. If an account manager is close to target and your order can be recognised during that period, they may obtain an exception that was unavailable earlier.

The important point is that you must be ready to proceed. A quarter-end proposal has little value if your requirements, approvals or contract review are incomplete.

For SMEs, however, there is an equally important date: the renewal notice date on the existing contract. You can spend weeks negotiating with a new supplier only to discover that the current agreement automatically renewed because nobody acted within the notice period.

Knowing when to buy is useful. Knowing when you are legally free to leave is essential.

When they ask about budget early in a conversation, what are they doing with that answer?

First, they are qualifying the opportunity. Second, they are establishing an anchor.

If you disclose a budget of £200,000 before the supplier has priced the requirement, there is a reasonable chance that the proposal will arrive close to £200,000.

I would say: "We have funding for a viable business case, but we are evaluating the total cost and the market. Please show us the appropriate solution, the cost drivers and the available commercial options."

A buyer also needs reliable information about existing commitments. What are we already paying this supplier? Which related contracts are due to renew? Are different departments buying similar services separately?

This is where contract visibility becomes commercially important. If the information is spread across inboxes, shared drives and spreadsheets, the supplier may understand your total relationship better than you do.

What's the most common mistake buyers make in the first ten minutes?

They reveal urgency and preference too early.

They say: "You are our preferred bidder, the existing service is failing, and we need to sign by Friday." That gives away preference, dependency and deadline in one sentence.

Another mistake is beginning with price before agreeing the scope. A supplier can reach your target price by excluding work that later returns as expensive change requests.

For an SME, there is also a contract-management mistake: beginning a negotiation without reading the current agreement. Before speaking to the supplier, find the renewal date, notice period, termination rights, current charges and any committed volumes.

If you do not understand your existing contract, you do not yet understand your negotiating position.

You've negotiated with £100 million behind you. Which tactics still work when you're a 20-person business?

The scale changes, but the fundamental disciplines do not.

An SME can still obtain two or three credible proposals, understand the total cost, define a walk-away position and make conditional offers: "If we agree a two-year term, what can you do on implementation costs and annual increases?"

It can also track the basic information that creates leverage: contract values, expiry dates, notice periods, supplier obligations and previous performance.

You do not need a large procurement department to do that. You need a repeatable process and a reliable source of information.

What an SME should not do is imitate a six-month corporate tender. Use the discipline, not the bureaucracy.

And which tactics don't work — what does a small business genuinely have to accept?

A small business may have to accept more standardisation.

It may not obtain a bespoke product roadmap, extensive liability, a dedicated service team or the supplier's best global price. It may face minimum volumes, advance payment or standard service levels.

The SME should therefore identify the handful of terms that could cause serious harm. I would focus on automatic renewal, termination, ownership and retrieval of data, price increases, implementation costs, service failure and the ability to move to another supplier.

Do not spend all your negotiating energy changing harmless wording while overlooking a three-year lock-in with aggressive price increases.

Sometimes the correct decision is to accept a standard term. The important thing is to understand it, record it and ensure the right person is reminded before it becomes a problem.

What's the one thing a small business has that big buyers don't?

Proximity between the decision and its consequences.

In a small company, the person making the decision may sit beside the person who will implement and use the service. That can create speed, clarity and accountability that large organisations struggle to match.

An SME may be able to tell a supplier: "Resolve these three issues and we can sign this week. You will have one implementation lead, quick access to decision-makers and fast payment."

Small businesses also have less legacy. They can introduce a sensible procurement and contract-management process without first dismantling years of inconsistent systems.

Their leverage may come from being decisive, easy to serve and strategically relevant — not from the size of their spend.

If you could put one sentence in front of every SME owner before they sign a supplier contract, what would it be?

Do not sign until you understand the total cost, the obligations on both sides, how the contract renews, what happens when the service fails and exactly how you will leave — and once it is signed, never allow it to disappear into a folder and be forgotten.

---

Kyriaki Chaldaiou is Head of Procurement Strategy at Timemy. She has led supplier negotiations across telecommunications, IT platforms and infrastructure services in the UK and Southern Europe.

Timemy keeps every supplier contract, renewal date and negotiated term in one place, so the next negotiation starts with full visibility of what you're already committed to — not a scramble through inboxes and spreadsheets. See how contract tracking works.