Is Negotiation a Waste of Time in 2022?

You might have heard the phrase “You get what you negotiate.”

This is 100% true! If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Nobody is just going to give you extra value because they are nice people…even if they are nice people.

But there’s still a major issue with using the old, outdated negotiation tactics that you expect from a business person…

EVERYBODY USES THE SAME MATERIAL!

Can you guess what happens when everyone uses the same stuff? Yep, everyone knows it’s a “tactic”.

When your counterpart recognizes that you’re using a tactic, they immediate lose trust in you, and you lose credibility.

Not to mention…What if your counterpart knows how to counteract your tactic? Then you both end up wasting time going back and forth until the deal falls apart from exhaustion.

What should you do instead?

First thing you should NOT do is try to make sense of your position! You can’t convince somebody of something, they have to convince themselves.

So the more effective approach is to question their stance and ask them to do two things:

1) Explain their position as to WHY they think they are right

2) HOW you could justify giving into their request, and also (if you’re feeling froggy) how that would also benefit you

This will cut through any time-wasting request just to get more from you, and will also help identify any lies from your counterpart.

Check out Chris Voss with the Black Swan Group and his book Never Split the Difference for the information you need to be able to do this!

The Bottom Line

Most people just simply like to “sport negotiate” to try and get a better deal, when in reality they are going to do business with you anyway.

A discount won’t make or break the deal, but they will put pressure on the salesperson to try and get get more for themselves anyway.

Don’t play into this!

Just ask them to justify why they are asking, and how it makes sense for you too. Then keep questioning them on each answer the same way until they give up. 🙂

-Jake

P.S. Anyone who says “Is that the best price you can offer me?” or “What’s your best price?” after you’ve given them a number, they are sport negotiating…especially if they say your competition is cheaper!

Ask them “I’d love to give you a better price! How would you say I could justify giving you any more of a discount?”

Or you could say “It sounds like you’ve got a reason for asking for a discount?”

Hope this helps!!