Although we pride ourselves on living in modern times, the art of negotiating is an ancient skill that our relatives who lived in more humble times probably did better than we do. Don’t despair — there’s no need to feel like a dummy! What your ancestors once knew can be quickly relearned! (plus you already know how to prepare to start to negotiate)
There are three negotiating skills that your grandfather’s grandfather used every time he ventured to market:
- Always leave yourself room to negotiate (& grant concessions): When trying to buy something, consider the price that is advertised for anything as simply a starting point no matter if it’s vegetables in the market or a giant wide-screen TV. Whatever you first propose as a price that you’d be willing to pay, make sure that the gap between it and the advertised price is great enough that you’ve got plenty of room left with to negotiate in. The flip side to this rule is that your starting price needs to be high enough so that it does not appear to be insulting.
- Concede Slowly: In every negotiation, you will end up giving some things away — that is the very nature of negotiations. What’s really important is how fast you give it away! The slower you are to give in on various points, the more time you’ll have to get what you want out of the negotiations.
- Ask For Something In Return When You Make A Concession: As silly as it sounds, this is actually very important. If when you make a concession you don’t ask for something, then the other side is going to end up feeling dissatisfied. They are going to feel as though it was too easy for you to give up what you offered. So instead, make sure that every agreement that the other side drags out of you has something that you get from them. Once again note that what you get does not have to have an equivalent value.
There you go! Armed with these three trusty guides you are once again ready to do your family proud the next time you venture to the market.
Tags: deals, money, sales, satisfaction, how to deal