Know How To Negotiate & Be Easy To Do Business With

You know, if there’s one thing that everybody could improve on, no matter how good you are, it’s, negotiating! Everything in life is a negotiation, dealing with family, coworkers, bosses, customers, stores, etc. I think I heard that we end up negotiating a couple hundred times a day. But this isn’t taught in school, where do people learn to negotiate? Most likely modeling parents or others.

What have you done to develop your negotiating skills? Personally I’m a huge fan of Herb Cohen. I’ve listened to his recordings and read his book Negotiate This! By Caring, But Not That Much. It’s easy and really works, I highly recommend it. Some of the tactics are even hilarious, like playing an incompetent buyer and putting the salesperson on a pedestal to manipulate them. I still laugh every time I do it and it works.

Negotiating became really fun and interesting project for me again over the last few weeks as I was in the market for a used Subaru. Hey…At least now I can definitely say I’m a true Boulderite.

It’s pretty easy to get a good read on the car itself from the person selling it, their communication style and ways of negotiating. I saw everything from, “as far as I know, everything’s great”, to disclosing something upfront, then another and another. Like owner, like car, I suppose.

My favorite this time was a lady who was selling a car that was way overpriced and was completely inflexible, even standoffish on the price and terms. I don’t know what was causing it, but she doesn’t get that negotiation is a necessary piece of the puzzle. Who knows why she didn’t just price it a couple hundred higher in order to make some wiggle room. It communicates a willingness to do business with, welcoming and open to win-win. So I didn’t even bother with her.

Negotiation is a process, as much as many people hate it at the car dealership. It’s a dance. Feeling the other side out, communicating, gaining trust, etc. In fact the biggest mistake that most people make in negotiating is not listening. Understanding this process and knowing how to play the game is absolutely key to getting what you want. Hence, the runaround at the dealerships. Everyone is guilty of negotiating without a plan, develop your plan and learn some specific techniques to use.

The most important thing to always know is that there are no rules. Even though car dealerships have their typical process to get you to commit, you definitely do not have to play their game. Try defining the rules the way you want to play.

Another book that I highly recommend reading is Getting To Yes – Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Fisher and Ury of the Harvard Negotiation Project (great site!). This is the stuff that everyone should know, yet nobody does, and a good idea to learn because you’ll use it everyday for your entire life.

Other Good Links:
Forbes ABCs of Negotiating
How To Cut A Deal
Negotiating Tip Of The Week