VCF renewals ▲ 31.4% YoY· Symantec EDR true ups ▲ 18%· Carbon Black avg quote uplift +22%· Mainframe MIPS capacity squeezes ▲· Audit notices ▲ 47% QoQ· Our last 10 deals avg −41% on quote· VCF renewals ▲ 31.4% YoY· Symantec EDR true ups ▲ 18%· Carbon Black avg quote uplift +22%· Mainframe MIPS capacity squeezes ▲· Audit notices ▲ 47% QoQ· Our last 10 deals avg −41% on quote
Wednesday · 27 May · MMXXVIIssue II
Independent · Buyer-SideLive
Renewal Negotiation
Posture · Quote validation · Structure · Signature The buyer's brief on a Broadcom renewal that has not been signed yet. Not affiliated with Broadcom Inc.
The Lead · Service Brief · Renewal Negotiation

Posture beats price on a Broadcom renewal.

What we actually do between the day the quote lands and the day the contract is signed. Eight weeks, on average, of buyer side work that the seller does not want done.

The quote that lands in your inbox is a position, not a price. It assumes you will not check the entitlement base it is built on. It assumes the core minimum is the number you will fight. It assumes you have nowhere else to go inside the window. None of those assumptions has to be true. Most renewals we work on cut between 35 and 68 percent off the opening quote, and the number that decides the cut is almost never the discount column.

We start the engagement before the seller wants us to. The first two weeks are quote validation against benchmark and against your actual deployment data. The next two weeks are contract structure work, ramp protection, multi year mechanics, exit clauses, true up bands, mid term consumption protection. Week five is posture. We tell you what the deal needs to look like from the buyer side and what to do if the seller will not get there. Weeks six through eight are the conversation itself, run on the structure we built, not on the structure the seller proposed.

"They walked in with a price our finance team would have signed. By week three we had a deal half the size of the quote with better terms."VP Procurement · Fortune 500 manufacturer

Two things change the work materially. The first is independence. We earn nothing on what gets sold. That removes every soft incentive to land the deal at a higher number, and it removes the seller's standard counter that we have a Broadcom relationship to protect. We do not. The second is depth. We work only on these contracts. The concession bands we see across 14 live engagements this quarter inform what we tell you is achievable. Not industry rumour. Signed contract data, verified.

Read the case below for one example of how this works on a $42M VCF renewal. Read the field notes for the patterns we are seeing on quotes that land this quarter. Then write to us, before the quote becomes a position.

§ 02

Outcomes on renewals

Verified · Net of fees · Signed contract delta
Savings delivered
$340M+
Cumulative reduction on Broadcom renewals, true ups, and audits.
▲ updated Q2 2026
Avg discount on quote
41%
Last 10 closed renewals. Verified against signed contracts.
▲ range 35 to 68%
Engagements live
14
Currently in active renewal posture across the practice.
▲ Wk 22 desk count
Contracts signed
180+
Renewal cycles closed by the practice across the Broadcom stack.
▲ Q2 cumulative
§ 04

Field notes

Quarterly intelligence from live renewal desks
VMwareQ2 · 7 min read

Why the VCF core minimum is the wrong fight to pick first

The core minimum gets all the attention because it is the headline number. It is rarely the term that decides the deal. The real lever sits two clauses deeper, in subscription conversion mechanics and ramp protection.

Read essay →
Renewal strategyQ2 · 11 min read

What a defensible three year commit looks like in 2026

Multi year commits used to mean discount in exchange for predictability. The math has shifted. Here is the structure that protects you against mid term consumption changes, audit findings, and Broadcom roadmap pivots.

Read essay →
Quote validationQ2 · 8 min read

The three signs your VCF quote is built on stale entitlements

Almost every renewal quote we see this quarter is anchored to a deployment snapshot that is twelve to eighteen months out of date. Three signs in the quote itself tell you when. Each is worth low double digit percent on the final number.

Read essay →
Adjacent practice · VMware Cloud Foundation desk →
Correspondence Invited

Write before the quote becomes a position.

Two analyst calls. No pitch. We tell you what we would do, what the leverage actually is, and whether we are the right firm. If we are not, we will say so.
Who we work for. Buyer-side only. No reseller relationship with Broadcom. No partnership of any kind. We do not earn anything from products sold or renewed. Only from outcomes delivered against the contract.