Communicate to Get What You Want

BARGAINS AND BONUSES

Looking for a bargain at the flea market? A better rate at the hotel? Here are some tips from Jim Thomas of McLean-based Common Ground Seminars:

Avoid Proposing a Price

Thomas calls this "krunching": saying, "I hear your proposal. I'm not really excited about it, but I'm not going to give you a proposal of my own." It might be just silence, in which you pick up the item, look at the vendor and then look back at the item. Or perhaps it's saying, "What can you do for me on the price?"

If the vendor concedes a lower price, you hem and haw again. "Basically, you krunch until he realizes he's making all the concessions, bargaining against himself," Thomas says.

Start Assertively, Then Back Off

When you can krunch no further, make an offer -- but don't open with what you expect to get. Calculate your offer so that it will be rejected. Then taper your concessions so that the initial one is the biggest you make, with further concessions increasingly smaller. This not only shows flexibility at the outset, but it also suggests closure as you near your target.

Try to Squeeze Out a Little More

Jim Thomas calls this "nibbling": asking for an extra concession at the very end of a negotiation ¿ for instance, an extra percentage off the flea market price or a complimentary bottle of champagne at the hotel. It's a sweetener in exchange for closure, he says. "In the worst-case scenario, you just withdraw it," he says. "They'd never go ballistic at the end of a negotiation. Nibbling is essentially risk-free, because they want to close the deal, and you're dangling it right in front of them."