I'm negotiating blind

Negotiating a contract runs on a budget nobody writes down: push on every clause and you win none of them, because the other side stops listening somewhere around the fourth objection. The question that decides the negotiation is not whether the terms are harsh, it is which two or three of them are worth the goodwill they cost to move.

Clauses earn their place on that shortlist differently. Some bite every month of the job, payment periods and notice windows chief among them. Some only bite on a bad day, liquidated damages, termination, set-off. And some read fiercely but rarely cost anyone a pound. Ranked by likely cost, with fallback wording ready for each, the conversation stops being about tone and becomes arithmetic.