8 Killer Negotiation Tricks Clients Don’t Want You To Know (part 2)
5. Biased choices
Everyone likes a multiple choice question. It reduces the options to a known minimum instead of requiring you to sift through an uncertain infinite number of options. You can easily lead the negotiation in your favor by introducing a certain finite number of choices, all of which are in your favor.
Think about these lines of conversation:
“We have been to Thailand already. Let’s do Hong Kong, Macau, or Philippines this time. The choice is yours.”
“Sir, we are offering you a choice of colors between blue, azure, and white. All of these will cost you the same — please choose.”
“You can choose between paying today and getting that discount of 10% or paying next month but losing the discount.”
“Okay, son. Here are your choices: a day of voluntary service for my club, or help me out at home for two days.”
Negotiation tricks are all about techniques that play with the mind.
6. Decide on the agenda
As long as you control the meeting or host it, you can control the agenda to benefit your cause. You may simply leave out certain topics from the agenda so that they never come up or place a certain topic for acceptance in the beginning (typically make it the second item, not the first, for maximum impact). If you chair the meeting, you can decide the flow of decisions by placing emphasis on certain topics more than others.
In an annual salary discussion meeting, if you are not keen on increasing salaries, start with:
“Today, we will first equate how our salaries are doing against other companies in the market and decide whether we need a hike.” (Given that your salaries are on par.)
or
“Let’s start with our profits during the last financial year before we discuss an increase in salaries.” (Given that the earnings have not been much.)
If you are in favor of increasing salaries, try the following:
“Let us start by telling you how our employees have benefitted this company over the last year. The accretion rate is high. Keep the people happy and they will bring more performers in.”
These negotiation tricks work like a charm in most corporate environments if you are calm, confident, and a good speaker.
7. Add a new person
Negotiations can get stalled. Let’s say you’ve discussed something with your team and they haven’t been able to come to a conclusion. Change one person in the team and ask them the start from the top. The new person must have decisive powers to change the course of the negotiation and rethink issues.
The stalemate situation will get a fresh start.
8. Plant pseudo-clauses just to accept their refusal
This is one of those negotiation tricks which is often used in several professional deals and personal agreements. Simply introduce a clause which you really do not need but put it up as being very important. You will get shot down for sure, but then you will get an agreement on the important part.
“I will need the full draft on my table by afternoon.” Wait for “How can I finish this by this afternoon?” and respond with “Okay, tomorrow morning then, and in that case, have it ready to be sent out by ten o’clock. Okay?”
“If I accept this price for the car, you will give me first year’s insurance for free and alloy wheels with rear parking sensor fitted.” Wait for the rejection of the offer and respond with “Alright then, but I won’t leave without the insurance.”
“The reception will be for two hundred and starters and beverages must be included in the price you have quoted. No beverages? Okay, two starters then.”
In each of the above statements, you knew that the other party would reject the added demands. You created those demands yourself knowing they would be shot down. Luckily, usually after refusing one thing, the other party is likely to budge on something else easily, thinking that you have already lost something you wanted.
Conclusion – The Killer Negotiator
These are a few of the many negotiation tricks up the sleeves of killer negotiators. However, I will repeat that ultimate mantra of negotiation one last time:
A good negotiator wins a deal, a killer negotiator creates a win-win!
As they say, do not try to grab the whole pie. Rather, make a way to inflate the pie so that both of you can have big and fair shares. Be honestly useful to your client (or your boss, your wife, or son — whatever the case may be) and they will never regret dealing with you! Stay tuned for my ebook on negotiation tricks, which will include comprehensive negotiation strategies.
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