Watch Out for the Shocker

I shall never forget the moment. My wife and I were buying a house. It was advertised on the market for £230,000 and my wife suggested, 'Why don't you shock them with an offer of £140,000? In fact,' she said, 'if I phone them and offer £135,000, will you give me the saved £5,000 for the garden?' I assented and she made the call. They were duly shocked. But we settled to my amazement at £135,000!

Why did we do that? There was nothing to lose. If we had been unsuccessful, we could still have come back with a sensible offer nearer their original asking figure. Using a shocking opening position can really unsettle an inexperienced opponent. When someone tries it on you, be prepared. If you are ready for it, you won't get angry and walk out!

Say, 'Thank you for your offer. As you can imagine, this is not even close. I will leave this for now and ask if you would kindly reflect on it. Maybe I can come back to you to see if it would be possible to find a way forward.'

We have kept the relationship intact. We have given them a face-saving way back into the negotiation, but we have defended our price. Often in response they will laugh and say, 'Just checking, now what would be close?' That is a very good ploy if you are buying, because it now gently coerces the seller to state a view on price that hopefully has been leveraged downwards.

If you are selling, you might say, 'I would like to come back to that in just a moment, but what I would like to do first is to run through an outline of the whole proposed deal.'



How to Negotiate Effectively
How to Negotiate Effectively (Creating Success)
ISBN: 0749448202
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 111
Authors: David Oliver

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