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The snakes in the BAFO
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Final bid phase. BAFO. Best and Final Offer. Beautiful name, by the way. And my favourite thing ever… It’s not just that people show their faces under their masks… It sounds clean. Professional. Almost elegant. Like everyone is now putting their best offer on the table, shaking hands mentally, and preparing for a fair final comparison. Cute. Then a few smart guys decided to be very smart. Too smart. They started sneaking small changes into the agreement. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that looked like a nuclear bomb. A word here. A sentence there. A definition slightly adjusted. A process softened. A responsibility moved half an inch to the left. Tiny changes. Almost invisible. The kind of changes that allow someone to say: “Oh, come on. That is immaterial.” Of course. Immaterial. Ya… as we say in Spanish… My favourite word before someone tries to rob you with a fountain pen. Winning by hoping that the other side is stupid is poor strategy. This time, the client had an advisor. Not a theorist. Not a consultant who had only seen PPPs from the safety of colourful PowerPoint slides. Someone who had his ass “pelao” of cutting cactus with it. Someone who knew the tricks because he received good slaps on the face… “guantazos”. So he stopped. He read. He compared. Hold on a minute. He discovered a beautiful little machine designed to make the client pay. And pay. And pay. Not today. Not at financial close. Later. That is the problem with clever people. They are just short-term stupid with better vocabulary. Congratulations. You destroyed trust for years. The client stop looking at your offer. They start looking at your character. And when that happens, you are dead. Not legally. Not formally. Not immediately. But dead. In the room, reputation matters. A lot. Being invited to the room is not enough. Being smart in the room is not enough. You also need to know how to behave in the room. Because the people across the table are not furniture. They remember. They talk. They warn others. And when your name comes back in another project, another country, another boardroom… Someone will say: “Careful with these guys.” That sentence can cost you more than any clause you tried to sneak in. Do not confuse negotiation with deception. Do not confuse clever drafting with bad faith. Do not confuse winning the BAFO with winning the relationship. Because in major projects, the real contract is not only the agreement. It is trust. And once you burn it… Good luck rebuilding it with track changes. For other insights… click below. ​The Room​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
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