OT - negotiating

[David WE Roberts]

I've got an item for sale on Gumtree.

It was on for £30. I was asked what was my lowest price. I replied £25. I was then offered £20.

So, which part of 'lowest price' wasn't clear?

Is it necessary to go the £29, £28, £27.50.......route to get to your lowest figure, or do most people believe you when you give your lowest figure?

Alternative strategies?

One friend says that in these circumstances the conversation goes roughly: What will you take? £25 Take £20 Price is now £26.....

Never tried this, but I might next time.

Cheers

Dave R

[Adrian C]

I have pretty much the same conversation with job agencies. Trick is to refuse to give them your 'lowest price'. They can make an offer though, and the ball is in your court whether to accept it, or push them to a higher figure.

[David WE Roberts]

Yeah. To my mind the 'lowest offer' is designed to cut out all the long, time wasting crap of offer and counter offer. Accept the price or walk away. Simples.

[Adam Aglionby]

Watched 2 antique dealers discussing a batch of cameras, after 40 minutes neither had mentioned a price, appeared to be a sign of weakness to actually name a figure.

Cheers Adam

[Mike Barnes]

David WE Roberts :

If your lowest price is £25, your answer is obvious. If your lowest price isn't £25, or you don't have a lowest price fixed in your mind, which part of "what's your lowest price" wasn't clear?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Most people will believe you are lying.

[David WE Roberts]

Now I find that hard to believe ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Are you accusing me of lying?

:-)

[ARWadsworth]

or

[fred]

In article , David WE Roberts writes

"If you don't think it's worth 30, why don't you make me an offer?"

"I want to know your lowest price", "I don't work that way"

is my general approach but I would rather not sell than be dicked around by some tosser.

[geoff]

In message , fred writes

Lucky you don't live in the "3rd world" then, isn't it

[Another John]

...

:-) That's the one! I'll remember that:

"What's your lowest price?" "You mean what's the lowest I've been offered? £25: I refused, and he went on his way. D'you want to make me an offer then?"

[Adam Aglionby]

[geoff]

err excuse me is this a 5 minute argument or do you want the full half hour

Actually I cunningly avoided use of the word haggling

We have become conditioned to accept posted prices, we just don't think (which is true of most people most of the time)

I bought a DVD player last week in richer sounds - first question I asked when we had agreed the model was "What discount can you give me". They offered a tenner, claiming not much margin, but that was almost 5%, better than a kick in the teeth

OTOH, I rarely give a discount, because my prices are the best the customer is likely to get.

The value of an item is what someone is prepared to pay for it, if they can get it for less than the asking price, if they have any sense, they will

[Mark]

Exactly. Therefore, when asked this question, I always give them the asking price as an answer.

[Chris J Dixon]

It is a bit like people getting upset about sniping on ebay. Set your maximum bid and sit back.

Chris

[fred]

I ALWAYS ask for discount. Doesn't matter what the shop. You'd be surprised who will give it. If you don't ask you don't receive. (In business I always keep a little bit in hand to give as discount. Keeps the customer happy) When I have quoted a price and am asked for a better one I start sucking my teeth. 'Had it priced to sell, you see. Do't have much in it.' If they persist I'll slowly give discount.

The ones I really, really hate, and they are an ethnic minority, are those who, when quoted say =A31000 say 'Would you take =A350' I just turn my back and walk away.

Paul Mc Cann

[jkn]

"my lowest price ... to someone who asks for my lowest price ... is thirty-five quid"

J^n

[root]

Sounds like they'd been on the same course I was sent on. In the 80s I was "given" (in lieu of a bonus :() a course on negotiation and consultancy. Probably because my boss at the time was a total spiv who wouldn't give a straight answer on anything and would always, always try to get something knocked off - hence the bonus :( - more as a "measuring up" exercise than because he needed to get a penny off a box of biros.

Anyway, I digress. One part of this course was about negotiating price and the view of the presenters was that the first person to mention a number was putting themselves at a disadvantage. The thought process was that if you had 2 people who asked to guess the value of something, if 1 person guessed (say) £0 all the second person had to do was to decide if this was too high or too low and then say £9.99 or £10.01 accordingly to "win". [ I know the principle doesn't transfer to the real world, but these guys weren't "real-world" types, it was all a game to them: to be won or lost, that's all that mattered. ]

My approach was to name my price and stick to it. This didn't go down well with the lecturer who wanted to get us to haggle. They regarded it more as a dominance game than a transaction and would waste a great deal of time (more than their time was costed at) to save/get insignificant amounts - just so long as they had the last word.

[ARWadsworth]

Maybe the "buyer" is as thick as pig shit.