Risks of Over Selling

Hello Good Negotiators

Negotiators often feel compelled to sell, hype and justify their positions.  It seems like the natural thing to do.  Studies have found, however, that this may not be the most effective approach.

Risks of Over Selling

A recent study, reported in Psychology Today, shared some interesting results regarding persuasion.  They shared that parties making an initial offer or proposal tend to do one of two things.

They could either simply state their proposal or they could state it with added reinforcement, justification and arguments.  The results were surprising, at least to me.

The study found that those who simply stated their offer or proposal without reinforcement typically came out better at the final settlement.  It appears that when we try to over sell we heighten the suspicions and activate the defenses of our negotiating opponents.  That's not what we want.

A better strategy would be to sell value first, then simply state the price (position or offer) and dispense with attempts at being pushy, aggressive or persuasive. 

Good negotiators know that the evidence of a good deal should be apparent without the hype.

It's another bit of evidence that silence is still a powerful strategy as we KEEP Negotiating.