How do you avoid being influenced by the first offer in a negotiation?

I hate walking into a store with a number in mind for a new laptop. There’s one, $2,500. "Ugh, that sucks.” But then, there’s one for $3,800. Now, the first laptop doesn't seem so bad. This is anchoring bias in action. In negotiations, anchoring bias can be a double-edged sword. ? Here's how it can impact your negotiation game: - Initial offer set the expectation. - Counteroffer hesitation. - Susceptibile to manipulation. So, how can you combat anchoring bias? - Research. Create your own anchor. - Walk away. Be comfortable walking away from a bad deal. - Focus on Value, Not Price. And negotiate based on what you truly need. Recognize anchoring bias, and you can become a more effective negotiator. Now, let's see how it works.

We saw anchoring bias at play in the post above (??). It tricks our brains to make decisions based on the first piece of information. Two important terms: - Priming. How the exposure to something influences how you respond to something else. - Adjustment. The fine-tuning your initial impression based on new information. This is the danger of anchoring bias. The first offer sets a reference and makes it hard to consider other options or better deals. So, how do we fight back? There a lots of ways. But you know your BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) before you walk in. This is your anchor, not whatever number the other side throws at you. By recognizing anchoring bias, you can become a negotiation superpower.

It’s human nature to be biased and usually it’s because of cultural religion upbringing or past experiences as a whole the thing that helped me to get rid of that biased mindset is working with diverse teams learning about different cultures and getting more exposure. But hey patience is the key here ???

If you see someone dropping an anchor first, you need to neutralize it before moving on. Address it up front and explain why it isn't fair. Then you can move on with your own proposal without being tethered to their initial anchor.

The biggest “trick” is to remember that every business needs people with your skills. This means an opportunity trade-off exists in the following form. You can choose to try and apply to work for large companies against millions of others. Or choose to work for a smaller company and have greater control over the direction of that segment of the companies growth. Both paths comes with their challenges but one will make you an expert by doing. Only you know which path is best for you!

To overcome anchoring bias, you can try the following: ? Acknowledge the bias and be aware of your own weaknesses ? Increase your knowledge through research and improve your reasoning skills ? Try to refute or confirm an anchor by researching other sources and gathering opinions from others ? Use decision-making tools that help you consider multiple options and avoid fixating on one piece of information P.S. Anchoring bias can also lead to serious and costly mistakes in judgment. Therefore, it is essential to learn how to deal with this cognitive bias effectively.

Something I have found to be helpful is to have all or the bulk of your research done before you go in to the negotiation and have a planned response if the price is too high, too low, sounds too good to be true, etc. For example, when I go to buy a car, new or used, there are many tools available to get a good idea of what the price range should be. So when you go to get serious about actually making a decision, you have a pretty good idea of what a good deal looks like. When you are in a negotiation, one of my favorite things to say is "you are going to have to do better than that"