If you are a Nottingham Forest supporter and were at the Gedling Inn in Nottinghamshire at lunchtime on Saturday, you can be excused for being doubly happy.
Not only did your football team win seven – nil against Brighton and Hove Albion, but you also had the opportunity to consume up to seven free pints of beer! Can’t remember a thing? I’m not surprised…
You see, the Gedling Inn had put out “a crazy offer” of a free pint every time Nottingham Forest scored to promote the fact the pub had started to televise local Premier League games at the venue. The Landlady conceded afterwards, “Never in my wildest dreams did we imagine they (Nottingham Forest) would score seven goals.
When negotiating, we concede in areas of lesser importance, to gain in areas of greater importance. Sometimes, like in the above example, we make assumptions about the scope and the risk, and we fail to protect ourselves and our concessions with less than adequate specificity.
A former colleague of mine wistfully recounts the time, as a Conference Manager, he negotiated a corporate event with a technology company. After some protracted discussions, the client asked for free wine for the top table at the event. My colleague recognised the buying signal that the deal was nearly over the line, so he used this concession to close the deal – “if everything else is agreed, if nothing else comes up, I’ll agree”. Hands get shaken; the deal gets done.
Fast-forward two months to the day of the event, and to my colleague’s horror, as the conference room started to fill, requests came in for more chairs at the top table. Yes, you guessed it. By the time the conference was in full swing, over fifty people were sitting at the top table—the event was not very profitable. This outcome was due to the wrongly made assumption that the top table would have a maximum of ten to twelve people on it.
Fortunately for the Gedling Inn, the outcome was somewhat different. People at the pub respected their promotional offer, and drinks and food continued to be ordered as the goals kept flying in. The pub now hopes this has put it on the map, and inquiries have already been made about when the next promotion will be.
Whilst people will sometimes do the right thing, this is not always the case with unspecified concessions; my advice is still to protect yourself and ensure that specificity is present to avoid unnecessary exposure to risk.
As for my football team, Everton, based on the season so far, I propose free beer should be directly linked to the number of goalkeeper’s saves in a game!
Sam Macbeth, 4th February 2025
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