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• Offer something in return to see if it will cause them to lower the price. "Would you take less if I let you borrow it once in a while?"
• Have other people make super-low offers to lower the expectation of the seller. This is unethical of course, but I'll tell you about it so that you will recognize it when it's used against you. If the seller has high hopes of getting $15,000 for his truck, your offer of $10,000 may sound like an insult. However if he's had only two offers so far, one for $7,000 and the other for $8,000, when you come along and offer him $10,000, he may jump at it.
• Make a low offer subject to the approval of a higher authority. "My buddy and I are going in on this so I'll have to run this by him, but would you take $10,000?"

Now let's look at some techniques that a seller could use to find out how much a buyer is willing to pay. Let's say that you sell switches to computer manufacturers.

Here are some techniques you could use:

• Remove yourself as a possible vendor. This disarms the buyer and may cause him to reveal some information that he wouldn't if they thought you were still in the game. You say, "Joe, we love doing business with you, but this item is just not for us. Let's get together on something else later." Having disarmed Joe in this way, a little later, you can say, "I'm sorry we couldn't work with on the switches, but just between you and me what do you realistically think you can buy them for?" He may well say, "I realize that $1.50 is a lowball figure, but I think I'll get somebody to come down to around $1.80."

As you can see from all we've talked about here, there's a lot to be said about the subject of price. Power Negotiators know not to exacerbate the price problem by assuming that price is uppermost in the other person's mind. Also it is ludicrous to say that what you sell is a commodity, and you have to sell for less than your competitor's price for you to get the sale.

Roger Dawson, CSP, CPAE is one of North America's top negotiating experts and a leading sales and management speaker. For information about Roger's Keynote presentations and training sessions, please contact The Frog Pond Group at 800-704-FROG (3764) or email susie@frogpondgroup.com; http://www.frogpondgroup.com.

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Copyright © 2004, Roger Dawson. All Rights Reserved.