Working on a new project is a challenge on its own, but when you go to the negotiation table, you get out and show your colors. The table can be intimidating because no matter how well you know your project, a wily negotiator on the other side can turn it into shreds in a minute. He can also put you in a tight spot, making you either accept a rotten agreement or walk away.

I have decades of negotiation experience in sectors as diverse as tourism, IT services, and Oil and gas. I hold a Master’s degree from a reputable law school not to become a lawyer but to become a more efficient negotiator. Some of my clients have used me as a one-man hit team to unclog negotiations that were hopelessly stuck in a rut.

It’s always wise to avoid that situation altogether. It’s very expensive to get stuck in negotiation and it also harms your company’s or your team’s reputation. Ideally, I come in long before the negotiation starts, and we hammer out a strategy together, assign roles, prepare decision-making matrices, and contingency plans, establish a commercial strategy and the BATNA, and make sure that everyone is on board about the objective to be reached.

Bad negotiators don’t know themselves. They don’t know what their company can do and what’s a deadly trap. One man’s death trap is another man’s boring routine. Don’t get trapped in templates and trite standards. LNG is not a standardized business and your particularity might be your USP – you might not see it that way yet.