The Lost Art Of Negotiation

Today we're taking a little different tact. We're going to talk about, call this the lost art of negotiation. In today's society, nobody negotiates anything. They take everything for face value. And it's kind of a lost art. My dad was very good at it. He was in sales, obviously, a long time, and an old Southern country boy. I enjoyed it and just came about it naturally because I can talk to people. I used to go to gun shows and sell guns for friends or buy and sell guns for myself. And you want to talk about learning some horse trading with these old veterans that bought and sold things. A lot of it is just having the courage to ask for something. So if you're negotiating for a price on maybe like, say, for Jack, you know, a new air conditioner, there's always a little bit of wiggle room. I mean, you want to be respectful of people, not beat them up. But one little phrase, when you're dealing with anybody on anything, I think that can be very helpful is all you. After they give you their bottom price, you simply say, is that the best you can do? And then they shut up. I don't care if you have awkward silence. Just shut up and look at them. They're going to crack. They're going to say, well, I can knock 5 or 10% off for this. Or Riley just had an issue with a hotel at ou, Texas. And to make up for the fact that he had to sleep with his buddy Garrett in the same bed, they got free breakfasts, which was a $30 value per day for their breakfast buffet. And he was actually pretty happy about that. So I don't think he asked for that. Maybe he did that might have said, what can you do for us? But that's the kind of things that people just don't think about in today's society. As long as you're polite, you don't, you know, you don't want to be an asshole or a jerk. You talk with a smile on your face. You'd be surprised at what you could get done. And there's, like I said, lots of businesses, service businesses, some of the food services, just times where things have gone bad. Instead of getting mad and yelling at somebody, that doesn't really help a lot of the situation. Just be polite and say, hey, look, this happened. What can you do for me? When they say, well, I can. I can offer you $10 off. And then you just say, is that the best you can do? And then the awkward silence can begin. They always say the first person to speak loses not always the same, not always true. But generally, if you're waiting on them for something, people do not like awkward silences. So then they'll start doing whatever. But you can use this in anything. Salary negotiations. So if you happen to be working for somebody and you're not self employed yet and the boss wants to say something, you could build your case whenever you go in for an annual review or if you say, you know what, I'm just gonna, I feel that I bring that value and you can negotiate your salary. A lot of employers are caught off by that. Some say, you know, no, we do this on the, you know, if you work for a big company, say like a hospital, they might have certain set times, but it never hurts to try, you know, and all you could do is ask. And these are lost arts in today's society of people taking everything at face value, not wanting to push the envelope or upset somebody. You don't have to do it as an asshole. You can just do it nicely and politely and be stern and hold your ground, know your value, you know, on anything. The few caveats with that would be, you know, I don't usually negotiate with small children if they're selling candy or mom bought some $40 chickens from the pastor's sons. And I was like, what the hell? What are you teaching these kids? Selling overpriced chickens as they're worth about five or ten bucks a piece. But it was our pastor's son, so we just took that hit. Didn't teach the kids much though. I would have negotiated with them and taught them that skill. But they're not my kids and I wasn't involved for a reason probably. But think about that. In everyday stuff, especially like jacking a service business, Ronnie gives lessons and he'll do camps and all this stuff. And sometimes you can use these, your, you know, negotiations to win business, you know, or you can set your prices a little bit higher if you're the one selling. And when people are able to talk you down, even though it's a reasonable amount, so say you set your 10, your sales 10 or 15% higher your price, knowing that someone's going to want to talk you down on a service. Or you can discount it and say, hey, if you sign up today, I'll knock this much off. They feel that's a win. They like that. People like small wins like that. So. And that's a whole other really talk of sales psychology and discounting and prices and stuff. But just the point of today's call would be for you guys always be willing to negotiate and ask and just say, you know, is that the best you can do? You would be surprised at how people will relent. People will say, well, yeah, you know, I can do this. No one's ever really asked. Or, you know, like I said, if you've been wrong, you have an issue with the hotel room, an issue with the car, this or that, build your case and just say, is that the best you can do? Shut the hell up and see what happens. You know, worst case, you tried. Best case, you save some money or you unlock a bonus that you didn't realize you had, and, you know, it saves you money. So hopefully that helps you guys out.