Sourcing in practice | Session 16

Holding the Line

The vendor's best ally is your own stakeholder, and the internal negotiation is usually lost before the external one begins. Demand as the lever nobody pulls, the four seat stakeholder map, the internal case in three layers initialed before the first vendor meeting, the owner armed live with a sourced and dated number, and the forty eight hour protocol for a break in the ranks. With briefings from the advisory desk. Recorded August 2026.

The first two minutes play for everyone. The full session is available on request with a work email.

What this session covers

You hold a strong position, the vendor stalls, and the pressure arrives from your own building: the stakeholder with the deadline who needs the deal signed and does not care about the cap you are fighting for. The vendor is counting on exactly that.

Live on the sample workspace, the owner gets armed: the portfolio as the one page where every figure traces to paper, the case for each deal priced over the term in the owner's language, the realized savings as receipts, and the twelve month board where the seats are named months before the vendor calls them.

Between the segments, the advisory desk explains why demand discipline makes every threat credible, builds the internal case in three layers with the initials that make it hold, and walks the break protocol: diagnose before you fight, price the defection gently, and sign real emergencies only as bridges.

Agenda