How can you negotiate change requests in your contracts?

Understanding the contract terms is crucial for negotiating change requests. It's also vital to consider your power position and the nature of your relationship with the contract partner, as these factors significantly impact your ability to renegotiate terms. Whether working with a new startup or an established multinational, and depending on the individuals involved in negotiations, such as founders, CEOs, or sales representatives, your ability to renegotiate beyond the agreed terms varies. Founders and CEOs often have more flexibility. In a good business relationship, you should always have the ability to request a renegotiation or change in the contract terms with a valid reason.

1. The initial step would be to check in the contract for the scope of work and to look for any provisional clauses for changes in contract. 2. Have to do a detailed calculation for the change in terms of cost and time, and when it's too early to forecast do an tentative calculation 3. Important to inform client/owner by notice as soon as the change of contract is realized, and followup the communication. 4. Present the requirement for changes in terms of technical/ practical issues facing, followed up by the solutions (always present 2 or more alternatives for how to handle the changes) and finally the cost and time implications. 5. Good communication and being transparent with client/ owner are most import factors in getting approval.

Assume you receive an email proposing revisions to a contract. Being an expert in contract terms is like to having a secret decoder. You see more than just words; you see the entire picture. It's like understanding that changing one thing might cause a chain reaction.

Experience has proven that setting a well-defined change mechanism in the contract is the most secure approach to address potential alterations to the initial scope. It is crucial to incorporate contractual provisions that outline what constitutes a change, how its implications are assessed, who bears the associated costs, and the methodology for determining the cost of the change. Ideally, this entails specifying applicable unit rates in the contract, should the service timeframe remain unaltered, or indexation methods in the case of long-term commitments. Coverage of these aspects in the contract will shield you from potential disputes, extended negotiations, or damage to the contractual and collaborative relationship with your partner.

When dealing with contract revisions, it can begin with a simple conversation such as "Hey, I saw the change request; can we discuss it sometime?" In another case, you may say, "I understand the change, but it may have an impact on a few things; how about we find a middle ground?" The point here isn't to engage in lengthy negotiations; it's to have a conversation. So communication isn't a big, formal thing; it's a daily tool for navigating changes. Whether it's a fast message or a phone conversation, it's the beginning point for resolving issues and keeping the contract journey on track.

Understanding the full scope of the contract is essential prior to the tender offer. Many of the creeping issues are caused by hidden factors eg. misunderstanding of the contract content, deliberate witholding of known regular errors not mentioned in the negotiation process. Many of these occurances might not be identified in the early stages by all the parties. Therefore agreement should be obtained to have regular meetings with the principle contract holder. Formal record should be available for the duration of the contract to the principal contract holder.