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How are your negotiating skills?

So much of business depends on one’s ability to negotiate. At the moment, I am involved in selling a large and very expensive apartment in New York. Located on the Upper East Side it belonged to my late mother and I am hoping to get over $6 million for it. Before you think ‘lucky dog’, let me just say that the money all goes to charity. Anyway, I am being hounded by, what they call over there, real-estate agents. What I have explained to them, and to the few people who have been round it, because they have heard of it through the building, which is quite famous, is that we are in no hurry to sell. The service charges are low and I’d rather mothball it and wait for the right price than sell it at a discount. Interestingly, this only seems to whip up more interest. I think that potential buyers and agents sense the truth in what I am saying and somehow it makes the apartment even more desirable. It highlights one of the first rules of successful negotiation. Don’t care! If you are prepared to walk away, you will always get a better deal.

After years in business, my personal approach to negotiation is very simple. I tell anybody who is selling to me that the way I like to negotiate is as follows:

• I will already have the highest price I am willing to pay in my head.
• I suggest to them that they go first and name the lowest price they are willing to accept.
• I promise to give them a straight yes or no – and not to waste their time. If it is a yes, it will be a yes; if it is a no, it will be a no.
• I make it clear that they will not have an opportunity to come back with a better price later on. That isn’t the way I play.

Well, I’m always as good as my word. If their price is good, I accept it. If it is bad, I walk away. Incidentally, if they start to drop their price after I walk away, I keep walking. If they come back to me the next day or the day after and the price they want is within an acceptable range, I may talk to them then, but on the same day it is poor practice to break a rule one has already established.