Follow these guidelines, and you will be dumb rich: Don’t act so dumb that it ruins whatever credibility and trust you need. Don’t act so smart that it ruins whatever trust you need. Don’t act so dumb that it looks like you’re acting. Don’t act so smart that it’s obvious you’re acting. Don’t act so dumb that you have More...

The streets are paved with gold if you travel them on the short bus. Good negotiators know to keep their gleaming sword of brain power snug in it’s scabbard, so as not to lose the sale. In most sales situations, you really do need to act dumber than you are. Or at least dumber than More...

Don’t go first! It’s not that it isn’t polite to go first, and you wouldn’t say to the other side, “Age before beauty!” It’s just a matter of good negotiating sense. In negotiation, you always want the other side to make the first commitment. I’m not even talking about concessions yet. You may well make More...

Did you know that a negotiated dollar is worth way more than a gross-income dollar? If you work your buns off for a $100,000.00 contract, sweating out many an hour, and involving many staff people, your boss will be thrilled that it came through. You’re a hero. But if your in an industry that has More...

There is a problem with this, though, when two people are using silence, waiting for the other to speak. And this happens. It’s because there are points in a negotiation where you know that the first person to speak loses. Neither one wants to lose, so neither one speaks. I found myself in this position More...

Hardly a negotiation should go by without at least one use of this venerable technique. This one technique, which is so brief and so simple, has made me such an obscene amount of money, that should be X-rated, and for so little effort! The key words are, “better than that.” Here are some phrasings. I’ll More...

Here are the key points for this maneuver: 1) You don’t get into thinking that splitting the difference is fair. You don’t use it as a way to escape the tension of negotiating over the remaining gap between you and the other side. 2) You’re version of this is to end up quartering or eighthing the difference. More...

Here’s that example of NOT splitting the difference. Or should I say, how to eighth the difference. Let’s say a nice, wealthy couple bought a cottage in the Santa Cruz mountains and they want you to rehabilitate a small bridge from their home to a convenient road so they can get into town faster. You’ve More...

Refrain from splitting the difference by getting the other side to split the difference at least twice. Here’s how. And, by the way, after this bare-bones explanation, I’ll provide a complete example in a real-world situation. 1) Once the negotiation has come down to a more-or-less small gap, you will both feel tempted to split the More...

Add these tactics to your arsenal. Their purpose is to test factors such as their price softness and unspoken interests. Raise and test their top offer by getting tentative agreements about what your authority in absentia might do. For example, if the buyer is paying $1.00 for widgets, and you know that he wants a company More...