I was surprised.
It isn't easy to surprise me, but on this trip I was left open-mouthed.
I'm used to business trips abroad - it's what I've been doing for almost 20 years - so I wasn't surprised to meet the client and his wife at the airport (not that anyone had updated me beforehand). I knew his partner, but since he was the contact to the local developer it was natural for him to join the trip.
They invited me to join them in the airport lounge. We sat, chatted and got acquainted.
At the airport, right after landing, we split up. The client went with me directly to the developer's offices, and his wife went to the hotel.
The meeting was tense. Our clients had not met the sales targets agreed with the developer, and now that we had come to sign the agreements, the developer was not willing to sell at the agreed price for the larger package of apartments.
For our part, we tried in all kinds of ways to find common ground and salvage the deal a little, but without agreement we parted, so that each side could consider its steps, and we would meet again for dinner and a working meeting the next day.
When we got to the hotel I was stunned. The client had booked a suite and informed me that I would sleep in the living room while he and his wife slept in the other room.
I explained to him politely that this was not acceptable, and that if there was a financial problem I would go down to reception and book myself a room at my own expense.
“Listen, the deal is on the verge of blowing up. We're going to lose money and all the expected profits too. I'm not going to invest another shekel in this,” he said. “If you want, take a room at your own expense.”
The next morning the client did not come to the meeting with the developer with a new offer. All my attempts to get an extension of a month or two so they could manage to meet the sales targets and win the discounted price were nearly accepted by the developer, until the client decided to reject my proposal, claiming that they might not manage to meet targets that they had not met so far.
“Do you have a better proposal?” I asked.
“Let him choke on his project. It's stuck. He has no money and the bank won't finance it. He needs our money,” he replied.
The developer would not agree to give up and sell them fewer apartments than agreed at the reduced price. After 4 hours of negotiations we left dejected, with the client on one side insisting on not asking for additional grace in order to try to meet the sales targets, and all of his anger directed at me.
We parted in the hotel lobby. I went up to the room and booked a flight back to Israel for the next morning. The client paid the bill for the trip only after several warning letters and a threat of a lawsuit.
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית