Contractor Intimidation Tactics during negotiations

On 11/13/2020 at 5:42 PM, Elaine said:

Has anyone encountered a contractor intimidating a KO during negotiations by reporting the KO to upper Government Management if the KO doesn’t agree to the contractor’s counter offer? How would you handle a situation where the contractor is attempting to intimidate the KO?

Funny that. I was just reading Volume 5 of the USAF Contract Pricing Reference Guides this weekend, refreshing my memory on negotiation techniques and styles. Have you reviewed its helpful guidance recently? I find it to be very useful.

On 11/13/2020 at 8:42 PM, Elaine said:

Has anyone encountered a contractor intimidating a KO during negotiations by reporting the KO to upper Government Management if the KO doesn’t agree to the contractor’s counter offer? How would you handle a situation where the contractor is attempting to intimidate the KO?

We have no context in which to evaluate this situation.  However, in my experience, it is the contracting officer who is the intimidator.  further, because we do not know the details of the situation you are addressing, it is hard to say whether the contractor is trying to intimidate the KO or elevate an unwarranted position by the KO to higher levels for proper review.

In my private industry world, I believe a contractor has a right to escalate discussions to a different level. However, discussions should not be "reporting." Also, in my experience, contractors are usually sensitive to working with the KO because after all, it's business.  On the other hand, bullying is reportable as unacceptable behavior. I would hope that Government management would open up discussion with the contractor representative and the KO separately, to get to the bottom of the problem. On a worst case basis, where it is actually poor behavior by the contractor, I would hope you or your management would consider escalating to contractor management. A lot depends on the demeanor involved. On a worst case basis, my experience is that both the contractor representative and the KO can be assigned another contract.

On 11/13/2020 at 7:42 PM, Elaine said:

Has anyone encountered a contractor intimidating a KO during negotiations by reporting the KO to upper Government Management if the KO doesn’t agree to the contractor’s counter offer? How would you handle a situation where the contractor is attempting to intimidate the KO?

Elaine, did the upper management support the KO in your scenario? Did they discuss with and allow the KO to explain their position?