Beware the between

This article first appeared July 27, 2011.

The other day I was negotiating with a building contractor who will be renovating our offices.

Okay, I’ll confess, I am making my office a lot bigger as befits my status here at Taskmaster Enterprises.

We’d had the conversations about what work was required (who knew sunken bars required so much work) and we’d moved on to the prickly issue of price.

I asked him what I was looking at.

“Well, um, I’d say between $10,000 and $20,000,” he said.

Ah ha, I thought – I’ve got him now!

By saying that magic word “between” the builder had unwittingly given me a bargaining chip.

There was now no way I was going to pay anything close to the top end of this range. Indeed, my starting point was the bottom of his range and I can assure you I won’t be going far from there.

Do you use the word “between” in your negotiations? If so, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.

The lower number in the range you quote will always stick in their mind and they immediately get an idea of how low you can go in terms of price.

You may need to change your mindset and that of your sales people.

Get it done – today!