The Briefcase #45: Accountants Negotiate More Than They Think

You might not think of yourself as a negotiator, but you are. It’s easy to imagine negotiations as something besuited young men with flash haircuts do across an impeccable glass tabletop – and that’s true, it’s just also true that you negotiate whenever you ask for more time at month end, challenge a budget, or push back on an audit adjustment. It’s perhaps not something you relish, but it’s probably worth being good at it.

⚔️ Negotiation is not combat

A lot of negotiation advice seems to assume you’re trying to defeat someone you’ll never see again. If you’re trying to get a decent price for the pork shoulder that a shady cueball has just rushed into the pub trying to sell, maintaining a long-term relationship is probably not your primary concern.

But accountants usually negotiate with people they need to keep working with – suppliers, clients, managers, budget holders, auditors, banks, or the person in operations who keeps submitting expenses photographed from space. You need all these people to not hate your guts for eternity, and that might require a more reasoned approach.

🧾 You’re good at negotiating, actually

The good news is that accountants already have many of the qualities good negotiators need. You understand numbers, you recognise the importance of good evidence, and you notice when something doesn’t quite add up. You are also able to remain eerily calm when dealing with dull bulbs.

Good negotiation is not about being the loudest person in the room, even if it sometimes seems like it. It’s about clarity, calmness and understanding what matters.

Before you go into a negotiation, you need to know:

• What you want.
• What you can live with.
• What the other person probably wants.
• What you can trade.
• What happens if no agreement is reached.

This is basically budgeting, but with more eye contact.

🗣️ The three skills you need

Negotiation boils down to three simple skills – speaking, listening and understanding. You can do that, can’t you? That’s easy for you!

Speaking matters because you need to explain what you want clearly, without sounding either apologetic or like the person on the other side of the table has said something untoward about a beloved and elderly family member.

Listening matters because it’s far too easy to turn up with an agenda and try to bypass the whole negotiating lark. You need to be ready to deal with stuff changing, and people saying things you might not have expected them to say.

Understanding is the difficult bit. It means working out what sits behind the words. Why does that deadline matter? Why do they care about that term? Why is everyone suddenly talking about cricket? What exactly is a googly? Am I a googly?

This is where accountants can do well, because you’re used to looking beneath surface numbers and finding the thing ruining everyone’s afternoon.

✨ Learning to say “if”

The most important word in negotiation is “if”. Too often, people give away concessions without getting anything back. They say things like, “no problem”, “we can do that”, and “sure, I’ll just absorb this extra work into my already collapsing week”.

A better approach is to make concessions conditional:

• “If we can extend the reporting deadline, can you confirm your figures by Thursday?”
• “If we agree to revised payment terms, can you resolve the system issue at your end?”
• “If we reduce the fee, can we narrow the scope?”
• “If we prioritise this work, what can move down the list?”

That tiny word keeps the conversation balanced. You don’t want to be giving away everything for nothing.

🧌 Beware the negotiation goblins

You’re going to need some tactics for the negotiation, but it’s a good idea not to be nasty. Unfortunately, some people are nasty little creatures, and will try and be incredibly cheeky when all you’re trying to do is have a conversation. They’ll say things like “we can get a better deal elsewhere”, or “I’ll need to speak to someone more senior”, or maybe just go quiet for a while just to freak you out.

The key is not to panic. Instead, if someone says they have a better deal elsewhere, ask sensible questions. If they introduce something unexpected, give them a bit of silent treatment while you take time to think. If they go silent, do not immediately fill the gap by offering a discount, your lunch, and custody of your firstborn child.

Staying shtum may feel unnatural – most of us want to avoid awkwardness by speaking. But sometimes the most powerful thing you can do in a negotiation is sit calmly and let the other person experience the consequences of their own dramatic pause.

📝 Preparing to fail

Like everything, the best negotiation tool is preparation. This is disappointing because preparation is much less glamorous than saying “how about you do all this stuff for free?” However, the former is more likely to work than the latter.

You don’t need to predict every possible twist. This is not chess against a procurement department with a fog machine. But thinking through likely scenarios gives you confidence.

You wouldn’t start a cashflow forecast by jumping onto a spreadsheet and seeing where that crazy train takes you, and negotiation deserves the same courtesy.

🧠 Final thoughts

Negotiation doesn’t require you to become terrifying. You don’t need to slam your hand on a table, stare into someone’s skull, or shout “enough of this farce!” Most of these things will actually make things worse.

For accountants, negotiation is about understanding where value sits. This is harder said than done, and a lot of the value is in the words you say. So, don’t be afraid to take stock of things while the conversation moves ahead, but don’t be afraid of giving anything away.

Anyway, you should be sorted now. Go out and ask your boss for a payrise.