More of the life in sales

Rule #2: Don't complicate easy, straight-forward negotiations.

It was my very own Chris Farley moment ("IDIOT!! That's so stupid! " ).

I have five or six contract negotiations going on right now for '06 Advertising. One of the supervisors I'm working with told me a week ago that she was finally ready to start talking about '06. She gave me very simple and straight-forward specs to work with.

The other day I put them together in a proposal and emailed it off to her.

In an attempt to keep management in the loop, as any good salesperson does when he's making long-term commitments on behalf of his firm, I cc'd my manager on the email and didn't think twice about it.

What I had done without realizing it however was give my counter-part in the negotiation a reason not to accept my proposal. Only when my manager's reply came did I realize it:

"You might not want to give her a reason to say no. She probably would have taken the offer, no questions asked."

**Sigh**

[ smacks himself even harder ] GOD DANGIT! That sounded stupid! I knew I'd screw up!