We are a specialist advisory firm founded by former senior commercial executives from Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, AWS, and Google Cloud. We left those seats to represent the other side of the table — exclusively. No vendor relationships. No conflicts of interest. No ambiguity about whose interests we serve.
The Negotiation Experts was founded in 2015 by a group of commercial leaders who had spent their careers on the vendor side — structuring the deals that enterprise buyers accepted. We had seen firsthand how the information asymmetry between sophisticated vendor sales organisations and even the most experienced enterprise procurement teams consistently produced outcomes that served the vendor.
We left to fix that asymmetry. Not by publishing guides or running training programmes — but by sitting across the table from our former colleagues and negotiating deals on your behalf, with the same intelligence, playbooks, and market data that they use.
Since 2015, we have completed more than 500 engagements across Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce, AWS, Google Cloud, IBM, VMware/Broadcom, ServiceNow, Workday, Adobe, and Cisco. We have defended enterprises through 200+ vendor audits and negotiated every category of IT contract from multi-billion-dollar Unlimited License Agreements to hyperscaler committed-use programmes to emerging AI platform agreements.
We are independent. We accept no referral fees, reseller margins, or introductory commissions from any vendor. Our only financial incentive is the outcome we deliver to you — which is precisely why clients retain us for renewal after renewal.
Our clients include Fortune 100 companies across financial services, manufacturing, retail, energy, telecommunications, healthcare, and the public sector. We operate across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region from offices in New York, London, and Singapore.
We represent enterprise buyers exclusively. We have never accepted a vendor engagement, referral arrangement, or commercial partnership with any software publisher, cloud provider, or technology reseller. This is not a positioning statement — it is a structural commitment that governs who we take money from.
Our consultants left senior commercial roles at the vendors we now negotiate against. We know how deal desks make decisions, where discount authority sits, which clauses are genuinely non-negotiable, and which ones are only presented that way. We use this knowledge to inform strategy — never to breach confidence.
We do not offer IT strategy consulting, digital transformation advice, or technology selection services. We do one thing: negotiate enterprise IT contracts. This narrow focus means our expertise runs deeper than any generalist firm can match. When the Oracle renewal lands, you want the specialist, not the generalist.
A material portion of our fee is structured around outcomes: savings delivered, audit claims reduced, contract terms improved. We align our financial success with yours. If we don't perform, we don't earn the same. This structure governs every engagement we take.
We will never disclose client identities, contract terms, or negotiation strategies. Our clients include competitors. They trust us because we have maintained absolute confidentiality for over a decade. Anonymous case studies are published with explicit client permission and with all identifying details removed.
We will tell you when a vendor's position is genuinely firm, when the market rate is close to what you're already paying, and when the right answer is to walk away from a deal rather than sign a bad one. We do not manufacture complexity to justify our fees — we earn them by delivering results.
Led Oracle's enterprise licence management function across EMEA, overseeing audit programmes, ULA negotiations, and major renewal cycles for Fortune 500 accounts. Now leads our Oracle practice, advising buyers on ULA structuring, audit response strategy, and cloud migration contract terms.
Spent 14 years at Microsoft in enterprise sales leadership and Azure commercial strategy, closing EA renewals ranging from $2M to $180M. Brings direct insight into how Microsoft's deal desk structures M365 commitments, Azure EDPs, and Copilot licensing terms — and where the leverage genuinely sits.
Directed SAP's global contract compliance and commercial negotiation function, with direct involvement in S/4HANA migration deal structuring and RISE with SAP commercial terms. Now helps buyers navigate the complexity of SAP's indirect access rules, BTP licensing, and cloud migration pricing.
Built and led AWS enterprise deal structuring across financial services and manufacturing verticals in North America. Deep expertise in EDP construction, Savings Plan optimisation, and the intersection of cloud spend commitments with on-premises licensing. Covers AWS, Azure, and GCP commercial strategy.
Led Salesforce's commercial organisation across EMEA, structuring renewals and expansions for global enterprise accounts. Now advises buyers on shelfware elimination, Agentforce pricing, Data Cloud economics, and how to structure Salesforce renewals to retain negotiating leverage across a multi-year term.
Spent 15 years inside IBM's software licensing and audit function before moving to VMware's commercial licensing team — and witnessed the seismic shift under Broadcom's acquisition. Now leads our audit defence practice, with particular depth in IBM ILMT, VMware subscription migration, and Broadcom licensing restructuring.
Every engagement begins with intelligence gathering — understanding your current contract position, utilisation data, and renewal timeline — before we touch a negotiation. Vendors invest months preparing for your renewal. We compress that advantage.
We work alongside your procurement, legal, and IT teams, providing the commercial intelligence they need without displacing the relationships they have built. Our role is to shift the information balance — permanently.
Request a BriefingWe analyse your existing contracts, renewal schedules, utilisation data, and vendor correspondence to identify where you are exposed, where you have leverage, and what the market will bear on each line item. Typically completed within 5 business days.
We benchmark your pricing against our proprietary database of comparable deals — same vendor, same product category, similar contract scale. We then build the negotiation strategy: what to ask for, in what order, using what leverage, and what to concede only at the last moment.
We operate either alongside your team as an expert advisor — preparing positions, coaching responses, and reviewing counterproposals — or, where preferred, as the lead commercial negotiator. We know how vendor deal desks think and respond. That knowledge shapes every move.
Before signature, we conduct a full commercial and clause-level review of the final agreement. We check for auto-renewal traps, audit rights overreach, price escalation mechanisms, and termination restrictions that will cost you leverage in future cycles.
For retained clients, we maintain a forward calendar of renewal dates, true-up windows, and contractual notification requirements — ensuring you never enter another negotiation without adequate preparation time or strategic position.
"Having former Oracle executives on our side fundamentally changed the dynamic. They knew exactly what was negotiable, what the deal desk would accept, and where we had leverage. We saved $14 million on a renewal we expected would increase."Chief Procurement Officer — Global Retail Group (FTSE 100)
Vendor renewal cycles are longer than most enterprises realise. The earlier we engage, the more leverage we can build. A confidential briefing costs you nothing.