Concession planning template
Concessions given on the fly are concessions given badly. Planning them in advance turns improvised caving into deliberate trading.
Fill this in before every significant negotiation.
Short answer
A concession planning template lists your tradeables (concessions that cost you little but the buyer values), pairs each with the get you will ask in return, and records your target and walk-away. Filling it in before a negotiation means you trade deliberately instead of caving under pressure. Copy the template below.
The template
Complete before you negotiate.
- Target outcome: ________ (the deal you want on price and terms)
- Walk-away point: ________ (past which no deal is better than this deal)
- BATNA: ________ (your best alternative if this falls through)
- Tradeable 1: ________ (low cost to you) -> Get: ________ (what you ask in return)
- Tradeable 2: ________ -> Get: ________
- Tradeable 3: ________ -> Get: ________
- Non-price concessions to lead with: ________ (support, onboarding, terms)
- Buyer's likely position and pressures: ________
How to use it
Trade the plan, not your nerves.
- Lead with low-cost, non-price concessions before touching price.
- Pair every give with its planned get.
- Stop at your walk-away; do not improvise past it under pressure.
Use this in Ardovo
You do not have to start from a blank page. Tell Rook, Ardovo's AI operator, what you need (for example, "concession planning template") and it drafts a version grounded in your real pipeline, personalizes it to the specific deal or contact, and saves it to the record in one step. Every framework lives in one shared library, so the whole team runs the same play.
Frequently asked questions
What is a concession plan?
A prepared list of your tradeables, each paired with the get you will ask in return, plus your target, walk-away, and BATNA. Filling it in before a negotiation lets you trade deliberately rather than cave reactively, which protects margin and keeps every concession earning its way into the deal.
What should I list as tradeables?
Concessions that cost you little but the buyer values: term flexibility, faster onboarding, added support, payment terms, or a reference request in reverse. Leading with these lets you satisfy the buyer's need to win without touching price, so identify them before you sit down to negotiate.
Why plan concessions in advance?
Because concessions given on the fly are given badly, usually for free and under pressure. Planning each tradeable with its matching get, along with your walk-away point, turns improvised caving into deliberate trading, which is the single biggest driver of protecting margin in a negotiation.