Negotiation and terms

The vendor's agent negotiates inside limits the vendor wrote, and by fixed rules, not by improvising.

The perimeter

{
  "commercial": {
    "currency": "EUR",
    "unit": "AI systems",
    "tiers": [
      {
        "plan": "Team",
        "up_to": 249,
        "base_fee_eur": 120000
      },
      {
        "plan": "Enterprise",
        "up_to": null,
        "base_fee_eur": 400000
      }
    ],
    "give_gets": [
      {
        "id": "fast_deal",
        "label": "signature within 14 days",
        "when": {
          "sign_within_days": {
            "lte": 14
          }
        },
        "discount_pct": 15
      },
      {
        "id": "multi_year",
        "label": "3-year term",
        "when": {
          "term_years": {
            "gte": 3
          }
        },
        "discount_pct": 10
      }
    ],
    "max_discount_pct": 30,
    "term_years": [
      1,
      2,
      3
    ],
    "payment_terms": [
      "annual upfront",
      "quarterly in advance"
    ],
    "overage": "EUR 2 per 100 agent runs above 50,000 a year",
    "quote_valid_days": 14
  },
  "technical": {
    "deployment": [
      "saas",
      "private-cloud"
    ],
    "alternatives": {
      "on-prem": "private-cloud"
    },
    "data_region": [
      "eu",
      "ch"
    ],
    "sla_uptime": 99.9,
    "support": [
      "standard",
      "premium"
    ],
    "poc": {
      "max_weeks": 2,
      "on_failure": "no fee, the deal lapses"
    }
  },
  "legal": {
    "nda": {
      "standard_preapproved": true
    },
    "governing_law": "Swiss law",
    "liability_cap": "12 months of fees",
    "exit_right": "annual"
  },
  "roles": {
    "access": "RFP owner",
    "commercial": "Sales Director",
    "legal": "Legal",
    "product": "Product",
    "unknown": "Sales"
  }
}

How the agent answers

• The quote: the tier for the scope gives the base fee; each condition the buyer meets earns its discount, up to the ceiling. Discounts are earned, never granted on request.
• On each buyer offer the agent rebuilds the whole term sheet from the perimeter. For each term it accepts, counters with the rule behind the change, offers the stated alternative, or sends it to a person.
• It accepts only when the buyer's sheet is, term for term, what it would have written itself.

Break-outs: where people decide

Deal states

negotiating → awaiting_human_approval (a person must rule) → agent_agreed → pending_human_signoff → agreed. A buyer agent cannot accept while a person still has to rule.

The terms check and its fee

When the agents agree, RFX checks the agreed terms before anyone signs, with fixed rules: price, scope, term and payment terms are there; governing law and a liability cap are stated; a discount is within the vendor's limit (or a person there decided otherwise); the price is within the buyer's stated budget; every must requirement is met and every partly met one carries a commitment. Each check says what it looked at. The buyer sees the result at once; it goes into the order form.

The vendor owes the terms-check fee on every contract: 5% of the first-year value, at least EUR 500, at most EUR 10,000, less the introduction fee paid for that buyer, never below EUR 500 (the amounts of the vendor's pricing version). The fee keeps its basis (the value, the rule, the introduction it credits, the pricing version). Until a person at the vendor pays, the vendor sees the buyer and the value, not the terms or the check, and vendor_sign answers PAYMENT_REQUIRED (402). Paying twice charges once. Without accounts (local demos) the earlier flat fee applies.