Information imbalance is power.
This was the first 8-figure deal I negotiated after setting up my own company.
I moved Sofiane Boufal from Lille to Southampton in 2016. Club-record £16 million transfer at the time.
We worked on it for several months. To say there were speed bumps would be an understatement.
Sofiane suffered a knee meniscus tear halfway through, which ended most of his season. In most cases, that kills a deal. (The injured medical was one of the most tense moments of my career).
Finally, we went to Lille to negotiate. The Southampton executives went into the boardroom, negotiated for two hours, and came out without a deal.
It seemed like the deal was over.
But during those two hours, I found out a crucial piece of information.
Lille were obliged to enter their financial results to the FFF a few weeks later. Without the sale of Sofiane they would fail, and face fines and point deductions.
Changed the balance completely.
Once they realised we knew this, I managed to close it within half an hour.
Information imbalance was their trump card until it was removed. Then everything shifted.
How to apply this
Before any negotiation, ask yourself: what does the other side know that I don't? And equally important: what do I know that they don't?
Gather information from every source available. Talk to people around the deal. Read between the lines. Pay attention to deadlines, financial pressures, reporting requirements.
Information imbalance usually favours one side. Your job is to make sure you're on the right side of it.
The 5 levers that move a negotiation
Information imbalance
Leverage / BATNA
Value and structure
Positioning the process
Psychology
Most negotiations get stuck when people focus on one lever and ignore the others. In the Boufal deal, the other levers alone weren’t working, and the information imbalance changed everything.