“Does Delight Come in Packages?” – “It Depends.” Issue-Packaging Agendas and Coordination Demands in Complex B2B Sales Negotiations

Abstract: This article examines issue-packaging agendas, i.e., negotiating issues within subsets together and subsets sequentially, as a way to manage complexity while preserving flexibility for creating win-win agreements in complex sales negotiations. Adopting a coordination-demands perspective, we investigate when and how agenda design enables sales negotiators to translate integrative potential into value creation. Across two experiments modeling complex B2B sales negotiations, we examine how structural and temporal features of issue-packaging agendas shape negotiation processes and outcomes by altering the coordination demands negotiators face. Study 1 focuses on package composition and shows that issue-packaging agendas yield higher dyadic outcomes when packages are similar in overall value for both parties rather than asymmetric in value. Study 2 adopts a temporal perspective and shows that sequencing packages with lower coordination demands before higher-demand packages improves dyadic outcomes. The effects operate through higher integrative judgment accuracy and higher positive in emotion in study 2.

Keywords: B2B sales negotiations; issue packaging; negotiation agenda design; coordination demands; integrative judgment accuracy; negotiator emotion