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Never Set Final Price Up Front When Negotiating

By alik levin

June 2nd, 2007 | Influence Without Authority


I would love to avoid negotiation and just get what I want. Turns out it does not work like this. I needed to negotiate my salary, my home price when I was selling, when I was buying new one, and some more cases. I’ve done couple of times same mistake telling the other party up front “this is my last price - take or leave it”. The end result was either I was compromising on less or the other party would have walked away. In both cases I was a bit disappointed.

Negotiation is and art, which I do not posses yet but learn toward it. One lesson I learned is not setting final price up front. It kills negotiation. From my understanding negotiation’s purpose is to let both parties achieve win win situation, so it is good to support negotiation vs kill it.

“Start out with an ideal and end up with a deal.”- Karl Albrecht



2 comments ↓

#1 Steve olson on 06.04.07 at 1:58 pm

Negotiations are tough for me too. I’m learning everyday. I think it is how we are brought up. Some of us were taught that negotiating was smarmy. I came from Scandanavian Immigrants, and I think they viewed negotiating differently than some other cultures. My elders never taught me to negotiate, they actually taught me NOT to negotiate. They considerered it dishonest.

#2 practica on 06.04.07 at 6:50 pm

Steve, thanks for posting your comment on my new blog :)!!
I learn and practice every day, I fail and learn again.
My parents never taught me to negotiate too, but I realized very quickly that it is a must-have skill to succeed - that is why I practice it :)
Thanks

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