Chapter 2Beginning Negotiating Gambits: Never Say Yes to the First Offer

The reason that you should never say yes to the first offer (or counteroffer) is that it automatically triggers two thoughts in the other person’s mind. Let’s say that you’re thinking of buying a second car. The people down the street have one for sale, and they’re asking $10,000. That is such a terrific price on the perfect car for you that you can’t wait to get down there and snap it up before somebody else beats you to it. On the way there you start thinking that it would be a mistake to offer them what they’re asking, so you decide to make a super-low offer of $8,000 just to see their reaction. You show up at their house, look the car over, take it for a short test drive, ...

Get Secrets of Power Negotiating now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.