I was hoping to have a video for you, but I didn’t finish it in time. Maybe next week, it’s more difficult than I thought.

Know what you want and be prepared to fight for it. In negotiations, the hungriest always loses. Never enter negotiations without a walk away position. If you can’t walk away from the deal, you won’t get a palatable offer.

Fair is fair. No purpose is served by one-sided negotiations. If you squeeze all the profit from your project, you’ll force the contractor to find other means to make money. If the contractor loses money, you could face excessive extra work, claims, delay, staff deterioration, quality erosion, and a strained working relationship. All of those will damage your project. Be forceful, but be fair.

Avoid negotiating alone (I would say never), especially if the other side has two or more negotiators. If they have two, you should have two. As a corollary, whenever more than eight people at the table (or in the room), some of those people are unnecessary. Try to keep the negotiating teams small.
Try to balance power to power. If they bring in VP, you should have a VP. However, try to avoid bringing the final say to your negotiations. Give your company the opportunity to evaluate your decision. If the person with the ultimate authority is in the room, that opportunity for evaluation is lost. The final say should be present at acceptance, but not during negotiations. As always, there are exceptions to these rules.