Easy Negotiation Techniques

Ever hear that expression before? There could be nothing more true in both your professional and personal life.

Today I am dealing with our personal / consumer life but know that you must take the same approach in your professional career!

So what do I mean by this statement? In too many instances we as consumers accept whatever we are told the price is. Never once do we think to negotiate the printed price or ask for more.

This is costing you thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars in your lifetime in both initial cost and interest paid!

ANYTHING FOR SALE IS NEGOTIABLE in some form!



Nine times out of ten ANYTHING you plan to purchase can be negotiated regarding price or added extras. The key to success is Simple…ask the question!

Here is a quick example that I experienced just last week…

I found myself in their store having my phone serviced. When talking to the representative and complaining about how high my bill was I asked if there was any way she could reduce it. After several minutes of going over EVERY plan they offered the representative finally told me that I had the best plan by far. My reply, “I see advertising specials and other offers from your competitors so I will go see what they can do for me”. The agent assured me that I had one of the most competitive rates out there! I again said “OK, well I owe it to myself to verify this”. That simple statement (and the other 25 minutes I spent discussing my plan with this representative) convinced this person that I was willing to look at the competition and take my business elsewhere!

The representative did not want to lose my business and realized that she needed to offer more!

She could not just reduce my bill BUT, she could give me a price reduction if mine or my wife’s em Read more »

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When negotiating, your state of mind is your greatest asset. Losing at anything will cause your state of mind to come under attack. If you can maintain a positive outlook on life, when life is not as favorable as you think it should be, in time, life will become that which you expect of it. If you’ve ‘won’ in life, when you’re down, recreate the scenario by which you won before and soon you’ll be a winner in your mind, again.

When you perceive that a negotiation is starting to go bad, don’t panic. Panicking will only exasperate the situation. During these times, stay cool. Call a timeout, if that’s what’s needed, and don’t start the negotiation again until you’re in a different, more positive, frame of mind. Before you sit down at the negotiation table, determine what winning the negotiation really means. Usually, winning is a testament to achieving a goal you’ve set for the negotiation. There will be times that you won’t be able to achieve the perceived goals, and yet, you can still come out a winner. You have to look for the unexpected opportunities that come up in any negotiation, in order to avail yourself to the opportunities such circumstance offers. In essence, you have to keep an open mind in order to open your mind.

The point the matter, it’s all in your mind. When negotiating, it’s a mental thing. Thus, if you can perceive a negotiation as a loss, you can perceive it as a win. I’m not suggesting you suspend reality. We all want to live in the ‘real world’, but what does that really mean? I’m suggesting you view an outcome that could be perceived as a negative situation and view the good that can be had from the outcome. If the outcome was not all that you expected, inspect the value you got from it. Sometimes the best lessons you can learn in life are the ones that comes from negative experiences. If you know your inner mental Read more »

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Every single person - whether ordinary citizen to business owner and professional negotiates. Whether it’s a product, service, idea or message - everyone wants someone else to believe.

Picture this -

You’re all prepared and ready to negotiate with a potential client or current client. Your material is succinct, to the point and hard hitting with emotional appeal as well as a dizzying array of stats and facts.

When you arrive at your destination to make your presentation, you’re immediately ushered into a room where a committee of twelve (12) people are waiting.

Unnerved - you know your material as well as having spoken to the CEO and the Chair just the other day - to verify that the issues and problems this company faces are real and they want them solved now.

You introduce yourself and launch into your presentation. You see all heads nodding - so far so good you

think. Halfway through your presentation, an elderly gentleman asks, “Why should we bother paying you to do something that we can find cheaply on the Internet?”

You meet the the questioner with a level gaze and answer, “Cheaply sir, you respond, doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed or that you have control over where the source of that information is coming from.”

The questioner sits back - everyone around the room nods in consensus and you continue with your

presentation. You think you’ve had a breakthrough - or have you?

As you continue your presentation - you look around the room to see who really has the power. You know the CEO is there, however since this is a committee, you know the CEO reports to another authority. You know the Chair, however, your ‘gut’ tells you that something is not as apparent. There’s another player.

Another questioner asks, “Your price for this is obviously going to be higher than we budgeted. Just pay Read more »

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