A Little Negotiation Tip

[NJonathan]

I learned this lesson from a client who used to always drive me nuts, until I realized what she was doing. Now I practice this on a daily basis.

This client would always answer every proposal that I emailed her with:

"Is that the best you can do?"

Just that nothing more. Simple, short and to the point. Without fail she would ask us to lower our price. Not as an insult but just as a question. This used to aggravate me as my margins where very important to my paycheck. But once I realized that she did this everytime and it was just her standard negotiation tactic, I replied "No." Sure I always did it in a really nice way but she still accepted my proposals.

Now I use this trick with every proposal I receive. "Is that the best you can do?" You would be amazed to find out how often your vendors will cave into that simple line.

How this helps you as much as it has helped me over the years.

[mattcarpet]

Surprising how simple that seems but I know for a fact it's worked on me before, good little thread, I'll have to try this a few times and comment my success with it.

[IBSEric]

Good tip. It's funny when you think about the most basic communication techniques that are often the most effective.