Ask for More!

It’s often the simplest negotiating tactics that will get you the extra few concessions you’re looking for. Sometimes, in fact, getting a little extra requires little more than just asking for it. This is called an add-on.

To show you how it works, let's go shopping for a stereo system. You know the one you want and how much you want to pay for it. So, first you go from shop to shop comparing competing prices until you find a dealer you can do business with.

Now you work on the price. Don’t ask for a discount. Make an offer that’s less than what you want to pay, and then come to an agreement on price. But don’t agree on a deal yet. This is where add-ons go to work.

Let’s get the price a little lower first. Does the stereo come with a karaoke microphone? Great. How much is it worth? Fifty ringgit? Okay, you don’t need the karaoke microphone, so can we get another fifty ringgit off the price of the stereo?

What about maintenance? Does the system come with a lens cleaner for the CD player? No? They’re not very expensive. Ask if the dealer can throw one in for you.

What about blank CDs? You’d like to try the burner as soon as you get home to ensure that everything’s working properly, but you haven’t got any blanks to work with. Maybe the dealer can throw in one or two, yes?

Anything else that you think you might want that will make this or any other deal sweeter for you is fair to ask for. As long as your negotiating counterpart keeps on saying yes, the deal gets better. When your counterpart says no, you’ve lost nothing for asking. Keep it in mind, smaller add-ons are easier to get.

Getting add-ons on a deal you’ve almost finished negotiating requires nothing more than asking, but working up the nerve to ask can be tough. To get over this get out of the mindset that tells you, “The answer will be no.” Tell yourself instead, “I’ve got nothing to lose by trying.” Because when you’ve got nothing to lose, you’re in a powerful position to negotiate.

Evoking the Competition

One of your advantages as a buyer in negotiations is that most of the time you have options on where to buy what you want. If one vendor doesn’t accept your price offer, you can try offering to another. If one supplier can’t provide the terms you need, you can look around for another who can.

Competition, in this respect, is good for buyers. It creates options, and having options improves your negotiating position. Your ability to evoke the competition skillfully in your negotiations, therefore, can give you the power and confidence you need for more successful outcomes.

The more competition you can generate for what you possess, the more valuable it becomes. As a buyer, what you possess is money. And vendors know that if you walk away from negotiations with them, someone else is going to get your money.

Sometimes the mere mention of competition is enough to get you a concession. Imagine, for example, that you’re with a real estate agent viewing office space that you want to occupy. It’s just what you need and the rent is already low. Still, you say to your agent, “Well, it’s okay. But, to be honest, I’m looking at another place that’s equally good.” At this point, your agent may do what she must to make her offer better.

If getting the price down is your specific objective, bring it into the competition. For example, “This other place I’m viewing is 300 cheaper than this one. If you can knock 350 off the rental for this place, I’d be more likely to consider it.”

Savvy negotiators realize, however, that evoking the competition can often be a bluff. That’s why it’s useful for you to substantiate the competition you bring into your negotiation. Saying you can get a better price is one thing. Producing a price quote on paper from the competition and putting it on the table is another thing altogether.

Some of the most effective negotiating tactics are the most simple to deploy. In a world where the customer is king, evoking the competition is an easy way to get the concessions you’re looking for.

Highballing: An Easy Tactic for Getting More

Here’s another tactic you can deploy early in your negotiation that may help you get more than you expected. It’s called a highball. This is a term that comes from baseball. Sometimes the pitcher may intentionally throw a highball to the batter, hoping that he’ll take a swing. When you highball your negotiating counterparts, you ask for more than you expect to get, hoping that they might go along with your higher price.

Highballing, however, must be done carefully. If your first offer is high, but reasonable, you’re signaling to your counterpart that your position is fair. Reasonable offers are useful when negotiating with long-term business associates with whom you’re taking a collaborative approach.

Highballing a little more will make your offer more questionable. This may signal that your approach is going to be more high pressure, but questionable offers are still negotiable. They just take a little more work.

If you highball too far, however, your offer may become indefensible and your counterparts might not take you seriously. They may very likely walk away before negotiations begin. That’s why any highball that you offer must not be too far out of your counterpart’s range.

Two benefits come from accurate highballing. First, highballing gives you a wider range thereby allowing you more room to negotiate and the ability to make greater concessions if necessary. Giving in a little creates the perception, when it’s to you advantage, that you are being fair, reasonable and easy to negotiate with.

Second, when you ask for more, who knows? You just might get it. For example, can you think of good reasons to ask your customer to invest in your full extended service warranty? Or why you should ask for an even bigger discount from your supplier? Or why you should ask for a higher salary and better benefits when attending a job interview?

If you’ve got good reasons to ask for more, highballing your offer is your answer.

A Simple Tactic for Negotiating

When you negotiate, it’s essential to have a strategy. A good strategy is like a map. It’s the route to your objectives and a plan for using options and detours.

However, “Strategy without tactics,” wrote Sun Tzu in The Art of War, “is the slowest route to victory.” In other words, any plan can only be as good as its execution.

This is why it’s valuable for you to know how to deploy and counter some common negotiating tactics. A strategy is what you plan, but tactics bring your plan into play. Here’s the first of five tactics I’ll be describing over the next few weeks. It’s called the flinch, and it’s the easiest and one of the most effective negotiating tactics to deploy.

A flinch is simply your reaction to an offer, and how you flinch will affect your counterpart’s perception of your position. Let’s start with an easy example. Suppose you’re at the night market and you want to buy bananas. You ask the vendor her price and she responds, “Fifteen ringgit per kilo.”

What’s your immediate reaction? Some remark of disbelief, right? "Ayoh!" That’s a flinch. The vendor immediately knows she’s not going to get that price from you.

Sometimes your counterparts will include an item in their offer just to test your reaction. That’s why your first reaction must lead your counterparts in the direction that you want them to go. Without a flinch from you, your counterparts will know that you consider their offer reasonable and, as a result, easier for them to achieve.

Here’s a story. Before I left Mexico, I did my shopping for a serape, a colorful woven blanket popular among touristas. A vendor with an assortment of serapes over his shoulder approached me and I asked his price. “Five-hundred pesos”, he said. “Ay!” I exclaimed. “Bueno, four-hundred,” he said. “Huy!” I continued. “Okay, three-hundred”, he offered. “Cielos!” I cried. “Diablo!” he said. Now he was flinching, too. “Two-hundred!”

All it took was three flinches from me to get his price into my range. Easy, no effort, and one of the most effective tactics you can use to get the deal you want.

Ten Tips for Doing Good Phone

The telephone has been around as a business communication tool longer than you‘ve been in business. So it’s not unlikely that from time to time you might take the phone for granted and relax your communication skills a little when using it. Remember, however, that your ability to communicate effectively over all available channels is the best indicator of how your company does business.

For that reason, here’s a quick ten-point check list to help you ensure that your company is keeping telephone communication professional:

1. Focus on your caller. You have picked up the phone, now the person on the other end deserves your full attention.

2. Maintain a level of formality. Business people tend to be much less formal today, but being overly casual on the phone can seem unprofessional.

3. Greet and identify. Develop a standard answering protocol for your company that includes a greeting and a name. You make communication easier for your callers when they know who they’re speaking to.

4. Answer the phone. Try to pick it up after just three or four rings. The perception of service and availability that this provides will go a long way.

5. Allow occasional silence. Gaps in conversation will occur on the phone as they will in a face-to-face conversation. Don’t try to fill gaps with meaningless talk.

6. Plan outgoing calls. Make a list of the points each phone call must cover. It’s better to be thorough and call once than it is to have to call back soon after.

7. Check on timing. If what you have to say is going to be long or confidential, it’s a good idea to check with the person first to see if it’s a convenient time to talk.

8. Use names. Refer to your caller by name two or three times during the call. This helps you restore some of the warmth that’s lost from a face-to-face conversation.

9. Summarize your points. Before you wrap up your call, repeat the main points that were covered and plan the next step. People remember best what was said last.

And with that in mind…

10. Smile on the phone. Although they can’t see it, people on the other end can hear your smile when you talk. And this makes your conversations sound more attentive and more personal.