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.