Getting squeezed by a 3rd party vendor manager / reseller. Any advice?

I haven't dealt with this kind of situation, and without knowing the specifics I can't really offer a solution, but here are a few thinking points to look into:

• What's the value of this deal for your company?
• Is it worth it to pursue that lead/deal given the conditions?
• Is going through the 3rd party mandatory for the potential client? (they might have contractual obligations to do so)
• Is it worth it to pursue that deal with the 3rd party?
• How much does the 3rd party stand to profit/lose from the deal if you sign/walk out?
• Can you work with a different rep from 3rd party?
• What's the value of your product to the very large customer?
• How much does the customer want your product? Is it company wide or just a few users? They might be able to pressure the 3rd party.

Many companies try to squeeze smaller ones into bad deals because lots of people are bad at business. You are not under any obligations to accept any deal if you don't want to or feel it is not a good one.

If that happens, you can always use it to promote your brand. A post like:

• We walked out from a x amount deal because we were getting squeezed would probably attract a great deal of visibility and would demonstrate your integrity as a brand.

Asides from that, good luck on the deal and I hope you can score better conditions.