Assume we’re going back and forth in negotiations. After a few back and forth a, with small changes each time, I send you over some language and you say: “That’ll work, I’ll draw up a contract and send it over to you”.
At that point, I would tell people internally to my company that we have a deal with that client.
But we don’t count on that revenue arriving, until we have a signed contract in place. Anything can happen between the negotiation and the contract being signed. The client could come back to us and say “there’s been a sudden change in priorities on our end, and we’re cancelling the project”. Or they might come back with any other change that they want “when I sent this to my VP, he said the top line number wouldn’t work, and we need to move it again, I’m so sorry!”
Yes, we don’t consider anything to be legally binding until the contract is signed. We “had a deal”, but deals can fall through.
If you deal in any contract worth more than a few hundred dollars, I really recommend you take the same attitude: everything is provisional until the final agreement is written down and signed.
> Which car company do you work for?
Was that necessary? Really? You can make your point without attempting to attack people.
> > "The G7 group of advanced economies has reached a historic deal to make multinational companies pay more tax"
> Is that true?
Yep! Because a "deal" can be something that is provisional. "Reached a deal" to me doesn't in any way mean that the deal has been executed, finalized and is legally binding. It means the first step of negotiations has been completed and all parties are agreeing to the terms of the deal.
Look, we're just arguing about the semantics of how final "reached a deal" is. I think it's not very final (especially when discussing large multiparty negotiations like the ones described here). You seem to think it refers to an absolutely final step. That's fine! English is messy and we can disagree about what specific phrases mean. I'll just caution you that most of the world will use the phrase "reached a deal" to refer to negotiations that are preliminarily complete, but the terms not having been formally adopted or legally finalized.
That's totally fair! I don't disagree that people who reach a deal shouldn't change the deal after that point (though the UK government seems to think it's fine).
But, suppose the following events happen:
- we reach a deal on some cool project
- reporters announce that we have a deal on the cool project
- I decide to back out of our agreement and not go forward with the cool project
- reporters announce that I backed out of our agreement
- You condemn me for my treachery, and tell everyone that I'm a backstabbing two-faced used-car dealer
- reporters announce that you have condemned me
The reporters aren't wrong at any step in this! We did have a deal, and it's correct to report on it and correct to say we had a deal. Even if the deal ultimately fell through to my used-car treachery.
I'm not saying people shouldn't hold to the deals that they make (though you seem to think that's my argument, so I must've made my point poorly somewhere along the way). 100% of my point is "reached a deal" doesn't mean it's final, and it's OK and even correct to say that a group of people have reached a deal—even if you don't think that deal is feasible.
Another example: Let's say that I form a deal with 10 investors that I will guarantee them a risk-free 50% annual return on their investment. You would be absolutely correct to say that I was probably lying! You would be correct to say it's clear that malfeasance exists! But you would be wrong to say that we didn't reach that deal. We did reach that deal, even if you think there is a 0% chance that the deal will actually be accomplished in the real world.
At that point, I would tell people internally to my company that we have a deal with that client.
But we don’t count on that revenue arriving, until we have a signed contract in place. Anything can happen between the negotiation and the contract being signed. The client could come back to us and say “there’s been a sudden change in priorities on our end, and we’re cancelling the project”. Or they might come back with any other change that they want “when I sent this to my VP, he said the top line number wouldn’t work, and we need to move it again, I’m so sorry!”
Yes, we don’t consider anything to be legally binding until the contract is signed. We “had a deal”, but deals can fall through.
If you deal in any contract worth more than a few hundred dollars, I really recommend you take the same attitude: everything is provisional until the final agreement is written down and signed.
> Which car company do you work for?
Was that necessary? Really? You can make your point without attempting to attack people.