The Art of Negotiating
Raghav Bhandari
Manufacturers & Traders of Men's Apparels | Looking for men's shirting & pant fabric suppliers.
Negotiation is more of a mental game.?
Whether it's negotiating a house rent deal, products, business, street shopping etc.?
The game is the same just the product and people are different.?
Disclaimer - This applies to middle class and above only and not speaking about lower middle class or BPL.?
My perspective - Firstly never get into a negotiation deal if you cannot at all afford the service / product because even if you're able to negotiate a deal its highly unlikely that you'll be able to afford it after discount as the discount in most cases is not going to be greater than 10% or 15% at the most and if you couldn't afford it at the original price it's again unlikely that you'll still be able to afford it after the discount without any mental and financial pain.?
领英推荐
The point I'm trying to make here is if you know you're not able to afford that product, you're already giving a signal to the seller that you're probably not a strong buyer for this product also you're giving a weak sign through your body language and words in the start itself and any negotiation strategy with the seller will just appear weak and you may not get the deal as expected and it is never going to be a win-win situation.
Once you know you're still going to be able to afford the product at its original price, you will now not think about the price but first rather you will think about the quality of the product and whether it's worth the price quoted which is utmost important in your negotiation. First did you even like the product? and next can you afford the product? and the next is whether it's worth the price? once these questions are answered internally that's when you are going to be at top of your negotiation game as you can actually logically explain the seller as to why the product is not worth the price and what pros does it have and what cons does it have. This kind of conversation gives you an upper hand in any negotiation but at the end of the day? knowing full well that you can afford the product at its original price - this particular comfort gives you the upper hand in then negotiating because now your body language and choice of words become much stronger where-in you're able to then get a good and worthy deal for yourself.?
At the end of the day if you feel the product/service is good but not worth the price because first you have checked the knitty gritties of the product and explained it to the seller with logic, you can then still walk away without purchasing it and more often than not the seller will budge and arrive mid way which would be a win-win for you as a buyer and for the seller.?
The process I follow is - For Example - If I'm visiting a street store to buy clothes - the first thing I'm gonna do is estimate my budget as to how much I really want to spend on clothes before going there and the budget is always flexible 10-20% up and down - the next thing is once I enter the store I will only look at the styles, quality and choose the products I really really like and interested in and then at the end I will ask the seller to tell me the total price of all the products I have selected and let's say my budget was 10K and the total came up to 15K , I will now together after selecting everything negotiate with the seller to fit the bill in my 10K budget by discussing quality, discussing repeat business, rapport building, talking about actual worth because at the end of the day the seller also wants to remove the stock for fresh stock to also come in. The difference here is I will not ask about the price of individual products as I like in the beginning itself and then tell him it's too expensive etc. etc., that creates a negative approach to begin with and the seller also naturally goes into a defensive state and that's what he's then thinking about throughout your shopping process.?
That's it for today folks!?