Chapter 16
How to Taper Concessions
In extended negotiations over price, be careful that you don’t set up a pattern in the way that you make concessions. Let’s say that you’re selling a used car and you’ve gone into the negotiation with a price of $15,000, but you would go as low as $14,000. You have a negotiating range of $1,000.
The way in which you give away that $1,000 is very critical. There are several mistakes that you should avoid:
Equal-sized concessions. This means giving away your $1,000 negotiating range in four increments of $250. Imagine what the other person is thinking if you do that. She doesn’t know how far she can push you; all she knows is that every time she pushes, she gets another $250. She’s going to keep on pushing. ...