Best Practices in Negotiation-How Firm Is Your Price?
that you never want to do in his or her circumstances.
It’s called “Negotiating against yourself.” This is lowering your price before hearing a specific offer from the buyer. Otherwise, you’re simply inviting the bargainer to low-ball you, to offer less and less, and to think “If he’s conceding now, if I keep grinding, I’ll get the price WAY down!”
Here’s how I responded to this question: “My price is firm because it is set at one-third of the retail price for this item, which is a great value.”
In other words, I know what I have, and my price is pegged to something objective in the real world, a replacement cost.
That response on my part generated a specific offer, which was 67% of my original price. I decided not to counter that bid.
“I’ll think about it,” I said, smiling. “You have my email!” she replied.
And we parted
