On: A Non-Negotiator’s Guide to Negotiating

[philbarr]

Whilst reading Getting To Yes, I kept thinking, "I don't see how this is going to get me a cheaper car", but it did take a while to sink in. I would say it's probably been more valuable in changing how I speak to people rather than directly giving me skills to knock a price down. However, when you define "negotiating" to include eliciting s/w requirements, speaking with managers/colleagues, defining personal relationships, etc. then I would say it's an invaluable read.

I will try Bargaining For Advantage mentioned elsewhere as well.

[Evbn → philbarr]

GTY is more about building something from nothing: getting people to join you in an effort/venture, from a position if initial mistrust.

It is too softball for strictly 1-dimensional negotiations like a car price.

Haggling on car price will always be an antagonistic zero-sum competitive operation, since their aren't any other dimensions.

[drusenko → Evbn]

Not necessarily. A big part of GTY is understanding the complete picture of incentives for all parties. I've found an absolutely terrific way to negotiate car prices is to do all your research ahead of time (including a test drive, if necessary), know your data (like the invoice price) and a fair dealer profit (from car buying forums).

Then enter into the dealership and say "I am ready to do a deal right now for this price, I've done all my research and know exactly what car I want. Here's the price I am going to pay, you know it's fair, I know it's fair, it gives you $1,000 of dealer profit and I want to get this done as fast as humanly possible to get you on to your next sale."

You'd be surprised at how attractive that is for a salesman. If they can make $1,000 in an hour, or make $2,000 over 8 hours of hard sales work, they will choose your deal all day long. Best of all, you get what you want, which is a lower price, and they get what they want, which is to maximize their commissions per hour of their time.

[epsylon → Evbn]

Knowing your BATNA (if I search long enough I can find another person who is willing to sell me the same car for cheaper) can make the difference. That's perhaps the most useful lesson I learned from GTY. In this kind of "competitive deals", if the deal is ever done it will favour the party which held the hardest position; knowing your BATNA helps you stay hard if you have a good reason to do so, even if you're a soft person. It's a bit like the difference between a well calculated poker bet and a complete gamble.