Negotiating
Negotiating is something we do every day, day in and day out, wether you realize it or not. It starts when we are born, throwing our first tantrum to get a toy, and goes on into our adult lives, in business, with our kids and spouses, negotiating is a huge part of our lives. While I could go on and on forever about negotiating, today I'm just going to cover basic purchases.
It surprises me how many people pay full retail price for things. The only thing I pay full price for is stuff at walmart like groceries. About anything else I buy is bought at a negotiated price. Its as simple as don't ask, don't get another huge philosophy I could go on and on about. But it boils down to you can almost always get at least 10% off anything if you ask for it, and sometimes as much as 90% off, just by negotiating!
The trick to negotiating is to let the other person feel like they won something. Nobody wants to just suck it down and give their product up for less than asking price, so you let them feel like they won something. Another trick is to waste their time, because after spending a bunch of time on a sale showing you their product they have an investment. Once people invest time into something, they will want a return, or something for their time.
The other day this guy selling these fantastic boxes of steaks came by door to door. He postured himself pretty bad in the first place by saying he only had 4 boxes left and was ready to be done for the day. That let me know right away he was ready to make a sweet deal. Plus those traveling guys are always more desperate or willing to deal than someone holding down a retail store. Anyways he wanted 320 for 2 boxes of steaks. There was like 12 t bones, 12, rib eyes, 12 hamburgers, 12 filet minons, and 12 something else or two. Good deal, but I didn't feel like letting go of 320 dollars. So I offered him 100 bucks after he showed me everything. He said how about 150 so I said 115. I didn't come up a lot, which let him know I wasn't about to just take it. So he comes to 130 and then I said 120 and we finally met at 125. So I felt pretty good getting a huge box of steaks for 125 dollars. Heck the t-bones alone would have cost that much!
I bought a new pair of nike shoes the other day. They retailed for 99, I simply asked if they would give me a discount. She said 10 dollars off so I asked for 15 and got it. Took a whole 5 seconds of conversation to save myself 15 bucks. You would be surprised what you can get if you ask for it.
One time a guy came selling kirby vacuums. They are all metal, pretty much guaranteed for life vacuums. This one had a carpet shampoo and all the attachments for drapes, and shop vac, everything. It retailed for 2499.00. A lot of money but these things rock. My mom has had hers forever and its still good, she paid about 2 grand for hers. Anyhow, when it was all said and done I got that vacuum for 500 bucks! I just kept telling the guy its all I had and my credit was too lousy to bother with financing options.
Finally I'm going to close with this. A lot of people are scared to make lower offers or to low ball someone. They think the person is going to be offended. Some people might be offended too. But usually you can control this by saying in advance your position, and tell them not to be offended. Like for a house, I'll say I'm looking at this for a rental, and I have to make positive cash flow and allow for repairs, manager costs, upgrades, taxes and insurance, etc... so all I can offer you for your 60k house is 15k. One way to look at it is making no offer is more insulting. Also remember to leave your name and number with them in case they change thier mind.
Generally speaking, depending on the product you can get a LOT OFF if you JUST ASK. Like buy one get 2nd one half off, etc. Or buy 3 get 1 free. I've saved 1000's of dollars over the years negotiating things. It really adds up. If they won't come down, get them to throw something in. Like if you are buying a couch get free waranty or make them throw in a free lamp or accessory, etc. Negotiating isn't always just a price discount.
One last tip, which is to ask for more after the initial deal is made. The reason is, once the human mind makes a decision about something, it will do anything to defend that position. So once you get them on board for a deal, you can often tack on or get them to throw in more. An example is you buy a new tv but you want the stand and bose sound system at cost. They are already on board for the tv sale and want it to happen so they will bend over to keep that deal, so you can get a steal on a bunch of other stuff once you get them on board for one idea. Now if you rolled in there and demanded all these things before they thought they got a good sale price on the tv, then they would tell you to take a hike. Its all about timing and getting someone on board first.
It surprises me how many people pay full retail price for things. The only thing I pay full price for is stuff at walmart like groceries. About anything else I buy is bought at a negotiated price. Its as simple as don't ask, don't get another huge philosophy I could go on and on about. But it boils down to you can almost always get at least 10% off anything if you ask for it, and sometimes as much as 90% off, just by negotiating!
The trick to negotiating is to let the other person feel like they won something. Nobody wants to just suck it down and give their product up for less than asking price, so you let them feel like they won something. Another trick is to waste their time, because after spending a bunch of time on a sale showing you their product they have an investment. Once people invest time into something, they will want a return, or something for their time.
The other day this guy selling these fantastic boxes of steaks came by door to door. He postured himself pretty bad in the first place by saying he only had 4 boxes left and was ready to be done for the day. That let me know right away he was ready to make a sweet deal. Plus those traveling guys are always more desperate or willing to deal than someone holding down a retail store. Anyways he wanted 320 for 2 boxes of steaks. There was like 12 t bones, 12, rib eyes, 12 hamburgers, 12 filet minons, and 12 something else or two. Good deal, but I didn't feel like letting go of 320 dollars. So I offered him 100 bucks after he showed me everything. He said how about 150 so I said 115. I didn't come up a lot, which let him know I wasn't about to just take it. So he comes to 130 and then I said 120 and we finally met at 125. So I felt pretty good getting a huge box of steaks for 125 dollars. Heck the t-bones alone would have cost that much!
I bought a new pair of nike shoes the other day. They retailed for 99, I simply asked if they would give me a discount. She said 10 dollars off so I asked for 15 and got it. Took a whole 5 seconds of conversation to save myself 15 bucks. You would be surprised what you can get if you ask for it.
One time a guy came selling kirby vacuums. They are all metal, pretty much guaranteed for life vacuums. This one had a carpet shampoo and all the attachments for drapes, and shop vac, everything. It retailed for 2499.00. A lot of money but these things rock. My mom has had hers forever and its still good, she paid about 2 grand for hers. Anyhow, when it was all said and done I got that vacuum for 500 bucks! I just kept telling the guy its all I had and my credit was too lousy to bother with financing options.
Finally I'm going to close with this. A lot of people are scared to make lower offers or to low ball someone. They think the person is going to be offended. Some people might be offended too. But usually you can control this by saying in advance your position, and tell them not to be offended. Like for a house, I'll say I'm looking at this for a rental, and I have to make positive cash flow and allow for repairs, manager costs, upgrades, taxes and insurance, etc... so all I can offer you for your 60k house is 15k. One way to look at it is making no offer is more insulting. Also remember to leave your name and number with them in case they change thier mind.
Generally speaking, depending on the product you can get a LOT OFF if you JUST ASK. Like buy one get 2nd one half off, etc. Or buy 3 get 1 free. I've saved 1000's of dollars over the years negotiating things. It really adds up. If they won't come down, get them to throw something in. Like if you are buying a couch get free waranty or make them throw in a free lamp or accessory, etc. Negotiating isn't always just a price discount.
One last tip, which is to ask for more after the initial deal is made. The reason is, once the human mind makes a decision about something, it will do anything to defend that position. So once you get them on board for a deal, you can often tack on or get them to throw in more. An example is you buy a new tv but you want the stand and bose sound system at cost. They are already on board for the tv sale and want it to happen so they will bend over to keep that deal, so you can get a steal on a bunch of other stuff once you get them on board for one idea. Now if you rolled in there and demanded all these things before they thought they got a good sale price on the tv, then they would tell you to take a hike. Its all about timing and getting someone on board first.
posted by Joel Huenink at
2:50 PM
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