Give some tips/advice to: Negotiating, Haggling, Dealing, & Parley

I've been in sales and/or acquisitions for much of my career.

• Know what you need from a deal.
• Know what you don't need, but might be seen as important to the other side of the negotiation.
• Don't give them something without taking... something.
• Always have your BATNA ("Best ALTERNATIVE TO a negotiated agreement.") ready. A deal doesn't have to go south if you have alternatives at the ready (up to and including walking away from a deal)*
• Know when you are in a haggle. If it's just about price and nothing else, you need to behave differently from a full negotiation with options.
• The best deals leave both parties feeling they gave and won something. Uneven deals where one party feels "defeated" are not good deals and will not likely lead to repeat business.
• Don't be a dick.**

*I have walked away from deals that were not going my way. When the other side came back I knew they were desperate for the deal to close (otherwise they wouldn't chase) it gave me the advantage (which I used to get what I wanted).
**I've done deals with people who were difficult enough to make me never do business with them again. I always strive to be reasonable for this reason.​

 

Nope, nope, nope.
Hate it, don't want to do it.

I remember as a kid listening to my mom talk upon her return from her first trip to Mexico and how much fun she had haggling with sellers. I thought then and I do now that I want nothing to do with bargaining over anything, especially trivial stuff.

It's a thing that many men are good at and if you dig it, I'm glad.
Selling people stuff is not something I have any interest in. If someone is trying to deal with me, I want them to cut the bullshit and get to the point.

 

I hate haggling. For me, the best tactic is to know my bottom line and be willing to walk away.

 

When I bought my house, we lived 1000 miles away, my wife and I actually found something we agreed on, and I was under a timeline. Returning for a 2nd round of shopping would have been painful. We offered full price and never looked back. We probably took a 5k hit, but the consequences of failing were too high.

I'll let you know about negotiating pay. I'm expecting an offer any day (awaiting the background check). I gave them the W2s from my last 2 jobs and asked them to give me a reason to leave. We'll see how that goes over.

 

I'm self-employed, my current fees are non-negotiable and I set my own vacation days. I think things have always been complicated.

Women often are often reluctant to advocate for themselves. So everyone, study up and be prepared when it's time to negotiate, absolutely.

I appreciate straightforwardness and clear, honest communication. If I can't get that, I'll probably go somewhere else.

 

Non-negotiation = negotiation?

 

BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, is the things you keep in mind that you can use if your deal starts to fall apart, or sometimes use to hammer a deal closed.

Closing the agreement you want, the exact agreement you want, is a rare thing. The only time that happens with regularity is when a shopkeeper posts something at a price and you agree to pay that price. Done. Negotiations are about trading things you can give up to get the things you really want. Compromise is important.

Two examples of BATNA

1. Walking away from a deal. You don't really need the thing being negotiated, so you are okay to walk away (the other side might not be in the same position, they may need to close this deal).
2. You have other people that can supply what you need. They are not as perfect as this deal, but they can offer the best alternative. Knowing you have alternatives give you breathing room.

The point of BATNA is that you always need to have options when you go into the negotiation. If you have no options but to close the deal, you are already screwed. You should always have a list of options that you can barter in return for things that you want.

Haggling is a negotiation. It can be one aspect of a larger negotiation, or just a haggle on its own. The key, as I noted above, is to know when the whole deal is really just a haggle. It let's you focus on what's important to the deal.

There is a psychology to negotiations, and haggling (I would suggest) even more so. If you know what to look for in a haggle, it's not that difficult. The numbers will eventually settle on the right price. You just need to be aware, and patient.

 

No, you are correct.

A haggle is the negotiation of money.

My point is that in a large negotiation that is full of moving parts, a haggle over the money can still be part of the larger negotiation. Some deals, despite other elements, do come down to a simple haggle and it helps to recognise when this happens because you can get distracted by the other parts when you should be concentrating on the haggle.

For example, many of the deals I did when buying TV rights often came down to a haggle over the price. The moving parts of those deals: exclusivity, territories, media rights, term of license, etc. were often not an issue. Most rights holders were perfectly fine with anything I would suggest. The only thing they they really cared about were price and payment terms. Knowing this, I could use it to my advantage, and did so many times to get a much lower price.

 

I can only offer this as a buyer:

1. I do my research.

2. I know the price I'd like to get the item for. How close I get to this price very much depends on just how badly the seller needs the money, or if they're simply wanting it gone with little regard for it's actual value.

3. I know what a fair price is for both sides would be. If this is where we end up, and I want the item, I'll buy it.

4. How far above the fair price I'm willing to go if I really want the item (this is the tough part).

IMO dealing with individuals on one-time sales is much easier than negotiating with a business where future transactions are likely. Unless the individual is an uninformed ass--"I paid a thousand for the guitar [not a popular brand with a high resale value] new, so I can't take less than 750." And I've known folks who walk away from truly greats deal simply because they stupidly dig in their heels--"Man, like I said I just can't go 250, how about 240 [looking at a guitar that is easily worth a minimum of 500]?".

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The closest I came recently to hardball (not in the adversarial sense) negotiating was our car purchase last year. I narrowed the choices down to the Chevrolet Equinox and the Toyota Rav4.

The Chevy salesperson was a great guy who didn't use high pressure. I was also very honest about the fact that we were comparing various makes and models, and might not choose an Equinox. That served a dual purpose: It motivated him to get to a competitive price, and didn't raise his expectation that we were "hooked on" the Equinox. He used some discounts to make the price very attractive. He also mentioned an additional discount, but said that would require waiting nearly two weeks in order to place the vehicle on a monthly Manager's Special List (I don't recall what name he actually used), which would require approval from GM.

And of course he mentioned "if the vehicle we wanted was still available." What he didn't mention was the Chevy dealerships were going to be receiving the redesigned 2017 models in a few months, meaning they were motivated "to move" the remaining 2016 models. I did mention this to him, casually, "I see that a redesigned Equinox is coming out, y'all should have some in around May or June." The 2016 vehicle we liked was placed on the Manager's Special List.

My wife, who would be (is) driving the vehicle, ultimately chose the Rav4. Toyota, as usual, didn't offer many discounts, but we got a price close enough the Equinox price, and the option of a rebate or 0% financing (and a couple of free small upgrades, some special mats and a cargo area cover, that didn't cost the dealership very little). Whether or not the Toyota is a better vehicle worth the extra money is subjective.