Win-Lose Haggling

Back from a week without internet, a touch of surfing over a coffee just revealed a delightful article on how to make the credit crunch prefaced recession work for you on your personal spend.  It’s all about haggling.

It featured some cracking tips that were certainly new to me (like bringing forward clothes and electrical good discounts and that a plumber daily rate in London is dropping from £200 to £150) but the main realisation was that we sellers are usually awful negotiators.

A prospect asks for a discount, and we tend to give the shop away.  Yes, we might win the order, but probably no commission as we’ve likely decimated our margin as a result.

It’s interesting to read the above linked article and wonder what you, if you were the seller, would make conditional on any discount discussed.  Could you say a price cut only applies if you bought a second item, or the model up for instance?