Comments on: Silence is golden

By: Caroline

Caroline — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:44:02 +0000

The seller's position was already weakened when he attempted to sweeten the deal. Sweetening a deal generally portrays weakness to the buyer. Your silence helped you exploit the weakness of his selling strategy.

By: Kevin McAllister

Kevin McAllister — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:26:51 +0000

Along the lines of negotiating a salary or other price, I find it quite useful to be very open and direct on the range you are seeking or offering. There are times when the candidate or employer are completely off the mark in their assessment of the market and you can save quite a bit of time by getting there early. To go through a grueling full day of interviewing or the expense of traveling to an interview only to find that there is a huge gap between bid and ask can be quite frustrating.

Also similarly to save time my Father-in-law starts out his phone conversations about a job by telling the employer his age. He says, I know you aren’t legally permitted to ask or make decisions based on this information, but I don’t want to waste any time with an interview for a job I have no chance of getting.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:14:32 +0000

Betsy, I don’t agree. That may be true in haggling, but not on the “principled negotiation” approach. On that approach, you need to know your BATNA–Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. In the case of negotiating an hourly rate, that would be: the rate you could get from other employers, i.e., the market rate. The employer should also know their BATNA: the rate at which they can hire similar contractors (again, the market rate). If you both have a reasonable sense of what the market rate is, then you agree on a rate in that range. (You can haggle if you want, although personally and professionally I don’t like to do that.)

By: Betsy Speicher

Betsy Speicher — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:02:00 +0000

The way my Dad put it: Whenever negotiating, the first person who mentions a number loses.

I’ve found that a very useful observation.

Them-”What hourly rate would you like?”
Me-”What do you think I’m worth to you?”

Me-”What is the best price you can give me for this?”

By: jfew

jfew — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:16:12 +0000

This tactic has other applications. In journalism school, reporters learn to do the same thing when an interviewee is answering a question, no matter how awkward the silence becomes. Inevitably, interesting details that wouldn’t ordinarily surface will emerge as the novice interviewee struggles to fill that void in the conversation.