GE 610 — Negotiations & Pricing Posture (14-week elective syllabus)
Winning a federal contract is not the end of the price conversation; it is often the beginning. The government negotiates — through discussions, clarifications, BAFOs, orals, and post-award changes — and the firm that cannot negotiate from a defensible position leaves money and margin on the table. This elective teaches negotiation as a discipline and pricing posture as the position you negotiate from.
Course number: GE 610 · Credits: 3 · Format: 14 weeks, one 75-minute session per week (plus reading and a weekly deliverable). Audience: Graduate students in the MS program; especially pricing analysts, capture managers, and principals who will sit across from a contracting officer. Prerequisites: GC 540 (advanced finance) recommended, or concurrent — the course assumes you can build a defensible price and read the other side's cost analysis. Texts: the doctrine and literacy folders of this repository; the course reader on negotiation theory (BATNA, ZOPA, interests vs. positions). The course is stack-agnostic by design (doctrine/08).
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, a student can:
- Prepare for a negotiation the way a capture team prepares for a pursuit: positions, interests, alternatives, evidence, and a walk-away.
- Apply the core negotiation concepts — BATNA, ZOPA, reservation price, anchoring, concession dynamics — to a federal negotiation.
- Explain the federal negotiation process: discussions, clarifications, BAFOs, and the rule that you cannot change your price carelessly once submitted.
- Set a pricing posture as a negotiation position: the floor you will not cross, the ceiling you cannot exceed, and the target that serves the strategy.
- Read the other side's cost/price analysis: what a contracting officer and an auditor see when they look at your price.
- Use a debrief as a disciplined information-gathering event — and negotiate for the information you are entitled to.
- Negotiate with a team: roles, the "one voice" rule, and the discipline of the room.
- Respect the ethical and legal boundaries of federal negotiation — including what can and cannot be said, shared, and promised.
Weekly schedule
| Week | Theme | In-session (75 min) | Reading / material | Assignment due next week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Negotiation as a discipline | Positions, interests, BATNA, ZOPA. Why a good negotiation is prepared, not improvised. | the course reader on negotiation; doctrine/04 | One-page prep sheet for a case negotiation: interests, BATNA, ZOPA, reservation price. |
| 2 | The federal negotiation process | Discussions, clarifications, BAFOs, orals. What the process permits and forbids, and when the price is truly locked. | doctrine/02; the course reader on the federal process | Process map: draw the negotiation arc of a competitive procurement from proposal through award. |
| 3 | Pricing posture as position | The floor, the ceiling, the target. How a posture is set before a word is spoken. | doctrine/05; the pricing-posture canon at concept altitude | Posture memo: set the floor, ceiling, and target for a case pursuit and state the strategy each serves. |
| 4 | Anchors and concessions | Anchoring, concessions, and the dance of movement. When a concession is a signal and when it is a giveaway. | the course reader on anchoring | Concession-plan exercise: design your concession sequence for a case negotiation with a rationale for each move. |
| 5 | The other side's analysis | What a contracting officer and an auditor see in your price. Cost analysis vs. price analysis, and the questions each raises. | doctrine/05; the audit canon at concept altitude | Memo: from the CO's side, write the three questions your price would raise. |
| 6 | The debrief as intelligence | The debrief is the negotiation for information after the decision. What you are entitled to, what you can learn, and how to run it. | doctrine/03; the course reader on debriefs | Debrief plan: design the debrief you would run after a loss, with the questions you would ask and the records you would keep. |
| 7 | Team negotiation | Roles in the room, the "one voice" rule, and the discipline of a negotiating team. Who talks, who watches, who decides. | the course reader on team negotiation | Team-charter memo: define roles and decision rights for a case negotiating team. |
| 8 | Power and leverage | Where leverage comes from in a federal negotiation: alternatives, information, incumbency, and time. | doctrine/05; the course reader on power | Leverage map: for a case negotiation, map each side's sources of power and how they shift over time. |
| 9 | Midterm | In-class: prepare a negotiation plan for a case situation in 75 minutes — posture, anchors, concessions, team, boundaries. | (review weeks 1–8) | Midterm submission. |
| 10 | Mock negotiation I | A full mock negotiation on a case fact pattern. Half the class negotiates; half observes and critiques against the prep. | (exercise) | Reflective memo: what did you learn about your own negotiation behavior from the mock? |
| 11 | Mock negotiation II | A second mock with a different fact pattern — this time the pricing posture is contested, not the scope. | (exercise) | Revised negotiation plan incorporating the first mock's lessons. |
| 12 | Ethics and boundaries | What cannot be said, shared, or promised in a federal negotiation. The wall between negotiation and influence. | doctrine/04; the course reader on negotiation ethics | Ethics memo: the boundary rules for a case negotiation, stated as a pre-negotiation checklist. |
| 13 | The negotiation record | Documenting a negotiation: positions, offers, concessions, agreements. The record as the governance artifact. | doctrine/04 | Record-keeping exercise: produce the negotiation record for your mock negotiation. |
| 14 | Synthesis | The negotiator's desk: posture, preparation, process, and boundary. Final negotiation defense. | (course synthesis) | Final memo: "My negotiation doctrine," synthesizing posture, prep, and boundary into a personal playbook. |
Assessment summary
- Weekly deliverables — 40%. Prep sheets, process maps, posture memos, and plans.
- Midterm — 20%. In-class negotiation-planning examination.
- Mocks + reflection — 20%. Two mock negotiations with reflective memos.
- Final negotiation doctrine — 20%.
Policies
- Real process, safe exercise. Mocks use case fact patterns drawn from real (closed) procurements; nothing touches a live negotiation.
- Boundaries are graded. A negotiation plan that crosses an ethical or legal line fails the relevant assessment.
- Late work. An honest early warning beats a silent late submission.
The price is a position; the negotiation is where you hold it. This course teaches you to hold it with discipline.