The first offer
Written by Jamie May
The oldest negotiation trick in the book is ‘always reject the first offer’. It is also called ‘price anchoring’.
In most Asian countries negotiation is a performance and both sides will kick-off with some ludicrous first offer.
There’s another old rule of negotiation that says ‘whoever says a number first loses’.
All of these are really old and you’re not tricking anyone with them. Australian’s will see through it in a serious negotiation and not want to deal with you going forward if you’re too far off the mark, or obviously don’t know fair market value.
Try this instead: ‘Give before you ask’.
Your job as a negotiator is to open the negotiation, not play silly kid games to avoid one. Be the one that offers a starting point, just get to the negotiation, so you can progress it. It’s not how you start the negotiation that is important. Only the result matters.
Some other advice, if someone immediately accepts a first offer, know you probably missed something in the contract and it’s probably going to cost you.
