CMA Associate Rebecca Stowe offers her advice in response to a recent query on a property purchase: Q. I’m trying to purchase a house, which has been advertised as “private sale” by a real estate agent. The price the vendor has specified seems ambitious, and as a purchaser, I’m keen to pay as low a price […]
Most of us have negotiated to buy a car at least once in our lives. It can be an exhilarating and somewhat daunting experience. Traditionally, men have been perceived (whether true or not) as having the upper hand in the car negotiation stakes. But is that true today? Let’s find out. What the research says… […]
In a previous post, we discussed why you should make the first offer in a negotiation. But what should you do if they get in first and make the initial offer? The advice here is short and simple: always counter their initial offer before striking a deal. The power of countering This might come as […]
Power in negotiation depends on perceptions. If you perceive your counterpart as powerful, they’ll often be able to exert more influence over you. Need to handle deliberate intimidation in negotiations? Discover our professional services to equip yourself with the skills to counter dirty tactics and succeed. But what if that ‘power’ isn’t real? What if […]
When it comes to effective negotiations, the clock can be a game-changer. Not only can certain times of day impact your outcome, the duration of a negotiation is a key factor too. Especially when it’s used as a dirty negotiation trick… While negotiations often take place within a limited space of time, in some instances […]
Have you ever faced a negotiator who presents with ‘limited authority’ to make a deal? Think of the company rep who’s fully authorised to refuse every option you might offer, but has no power to approve even your reasonable counter-offers. Of course, sometimes the ‘limited authority’ claim is entirely genuine. Not every negotiator you face […]
Dirty negotiation tricks – we don’t recommend you use them but it is important to be able to deal with them, and protect yourself, when you’re up against them. In our last post, we covered the good cop / bad cop approach. Now let’s explore the age-old ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ tactic. The final offer… You may have […]
When it comes to negotiation approaches, it’s no surprise that some negotiators use dirty tricks. Many of the participants in our workshops and programs are keen to learn how to counter these tricks – ethically – when they come up against them. Want to outsmart dirty negotiation tricks like the good cop/bad cop strategy? Explore […]
It may seem hard to believe, but the way you phrase your requests can be a game-changer in negotiation. And there’s a huge amount of research to back this up: people, it seems, respond differently to messages simply based on how they’re framed (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). For example, a 2011 study by Grant and […]
In our last post, we explored how to make negotiation offers that result in higher value outcomes. But we didn’t discuss the vexed, long-debated question of who should make the first offer in a negotiation. Let’s explore it. Drop anchor Question: Did Gandhi die before or after 140 years old? If you said ‘before’, you’re […]