In that most famous of sales movies,David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, the under-appreciated Alec Baldwin gave his sorry group of cold-callers the prime directive of sales: Always Be Closing. You close when you convene the negotiation, close when you open it, close when you ask diagnostic questions, close when you offer your bargaining partner coffee, and close by MAKING THE FIRST OFFER.
In an environment of uncertainty where the value of one or more items to be traded is not fixed, the negotiator who makes the first offer will “anchor” the bargaining session in her favor throughout the bargaining session. Even when we know that someone else is trying to influence us by framing an issue or valuing the subject matter of a dispute, we will be influenced. We can’t help it. Our brains just work that way. To encourage your opponent’s vulnerable mind to be influenced with your valuation, it is best to state the reasons for your bargaining position. Researchers have noted that low valuations draw our attentions to the weaknesses of the item to be traded – a car for instance – and that high valuations draw our attentions to its strengths. You should take advantage of this by coupling your first offer with the reasons why the item you are buying or the thing you are selling should be valued low for a buyer or high for a seller.
And now a little something from the man who tore the sheets off the world of the cold call; off of the men working on a draw against commissions; off the guys who came around my house before I turned ten years old to talk dirty, make me paper airplanes, and perfect the lies that would get tomorrow’s prospects to sign on the dotted line: David Mamet.
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