The art of negotiation
So I went to the store yesterday to look for a home theatre system to go with the TV I bought just over a month ago. I found what I wanted, and went to find a sales assistant. I asked him what deal he could do for me on the $999 system. He told me that he couldn’t, or he’d get fired. I looked at him and asked if he was new, and he said no, he’s been here a long time.
“But you’ll get fired if you do a deal?”
“Yeh, unfortunately…”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. ”I’ve got deals before without any issues. Go talk to your manager, bring him over here.”
He didn’t want to do that, so he said, “Look, the best I can do is give it to you for $990.” I looked at the price ($999) and look back at him.
“So you’ll take $9 off the price?”
“Yeh, that’s the best deal you’re going to get, I’m afraid.”
“Go get your manager.”
He still didn’t want to do that, so he said, “Ok, how about I throw in a blueray disc?”
“I don’t want a blueray disc.”
“A DVD?”
“Look, I don’t want anything else, I just want this. I’ll tell you what… If you take $99 off the price, I’ll take it.”
“I can’t do that!”
“I’m not asking you to. Go find your manager and tell him I’ll take this today for $900.”
“But….”
“Why are you still here?”
So he went off and came back a few minutes later holding a pack of batteries. “The manager says you can have it for $900 including these extra batteries for the remote.”
Sold.
