The Street-Smart Salesman: How Growing Up Poor Helped Make Me Rich

Chapter 18

The Will to Walk: Negotiating

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

—Aristotle

 

All sales trainers teach, in this matter correctly, that the upper hand in a negotiation is strong in direct proportion to the willingness, or perceived willingness, both yours and your customer's, to walk away from the table. Of course, no sales trainer really wants you to walk away or get into a contest to see who will walk away first. But I have defied conventional wisdom and walked away plenty of times. Because my confidence is high, my business strong and prospects ever-bright, even before I get into a negotiation I know exactly where my price point is and how I am willing to negotiate my terms (for instance, the payment schedule) in order to get it. And I stick to it. I set my number as high above the midpoint as I deem achievable under the circumstances.

Making a habit of “splitting the difference” will not make you rich. The phrase is widely interpreted to indicate an honorable intention, a dispassionate removal of a final obstacle. Personally, I find it's too often done reflexively, without due consideration, certainly without due calculation. A Street-Smart salesman must unlearn the impulse to split the difference. You go to great lengths to demonstrate yourself to be a cut above, so make your numbers a cut above, too. Why undermine your authority at a critical moment in a negotiation by lowering the price? Are you worth the premium to this customer ...