The Invisible Game

Chapter 16The Power of Free and the Power of Now

You and your customers are subject to a vast range of biases, more than we could ever hope to address in depth in our book. It would be both overwhelming and impractical for any book to help you tighten every mental bolt and screw so that you become aware of all your own biases, learn to resist them, learn to identify them in others, and then learn to apply that mastery and control to make your own negotiations more successful.

That forced us to decide which biases you should not only learn first, but also learn so well that you can try to make their use second nature. In this chapter we look at two important biases that directly and significantly affect how much money the parties will exchange in a negotiation. These biases are the zero-risk bias and the present bias. In layman's terms, they translate into power of free and the power of now.

Understanding and controlling these two biases will help you avoid the risks – the fears, game-playing, and price erosion – that conventional forms of discounting can lead to. Learning to say ‘no’ – one of the main accomplishments from Part II – does not mean that discounts have absolutely no role to play in a sales negotiation. When used in the right way and in the right context, they can help you defend prices, make customers happy, and encourage a longer-term relationship or partnership instead of a transactional one. In this sense, discounting is not a disease or sickness, but rather ...