It was way back in late 90s. I still remember it was a quarter end. I was working on a large deal. I was banking on that deal to meet my quota and I didn’t have any other deal of that size. As I was working for that deal for more than 4 months, I had built a good rapport with most of the stakeholders in the organization.

The need was there. The prospect liked our product. The POC and demo went on well. The only aspect that was preventing the prospect to place the order on us was the commercials. The IT Head asked me to meet the procurement head and try my luck for the PO. This Procurement Head was a tough person and I had never come across such a tough negotiator previously.
It was the last day of the quarter. The Procurement head sensed my desperation and started with a rock bottom price. He categorically told me that if I was not matching his price expectations, he would ask his IT head to look for some other product and vendor. Having put so much of efforts, I didn’t want to let go this opportunity and gave a bit of discount to satisfy his ego. He was not satisfied. The haggling went on for more than an hour. The prospect didn’t seem to accept my final offer.

I was getting tired and disappointed as time was ticking out. It was evident in my face. After seeing my expression, he said, “Sir, I have told my expectations. You please match this and take the Purchase order”. I said with a smile, “Sir, along with this “Purchase order”, ask your HR team to issue an “Appointment order” also to me, because if I go with this Purchase order to my office, they will definitely issue a “Get out order””. After hearing this, he burst into laughter and the situation became light. He then released the Purchase order within an hour.
Sometimes our smile and sense of humour changed the situation completely to our favour.