Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

Initial Exaggeration Persuades?

Initial Exaggeration Persuades?

This corporate point of initial exaggeration is what I posted about before.

In short: An offer must be believable. Other the other party will think you are a fool.

If you want $100,000 in salary, you should ask for as much as you possibly can – without it sounding like you are being disingenuous.

Don’t go over the invisible line. But get as close as you can. For the anchor amount is almost just as important…

The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of reciprocal concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.

-Robert Cialdini, Influence

Strategic Compromise

Strategic Compromise

Like I said about strategic compromise, it does not have to be on a corporate or political level.

In this case, turning down the chance to buy tickets to the circus led to an offer to buy a few candy bars.

And it worked. It worked on a professor of psychology that specializes in persuasion.

Of course, I would do the same in selling a car. Or selling anything, for that matter.

Was that how the Boy Scout got me to buy his candy bars? Was his retreat from the five-dollar request to the one-dollar request an artificial one that was intentionally designed to sell candy bars? As one who has still refused to discard even his first Scout merit badge, I genuinely hope not. But whether or not the large-request-then-smaller-request sequence was planned, its effect was the same, It worked. And because it works, the rejection-then-retreat technique can and will be used purposely by certain people to get their way.

-Robert Cialdini, Influence

Sterling Terrell