The Negotiation Guru

Today, my friend David shared with me how he negotiated against his credit card company. He received a letter from his bank two days ago with an additional charge of $160 after he supposedly breached a clause of theirs. He was totally unaware of this clause and decided to make a trip down to the bank.

The lady who attended to him was really rude. She would not budge no matter how hard he tried to get the charge waived off. He decided to take another approach.

“Has the bank ever made an exception to cases like this?”

“No, sir.”

“Why?”

“It’s written very clearly in the contract that if you…”

“I was totally unaware of the fine prints. The banker whom i opened my account with did not warn me of this”

“Well, I can’t really help you in that.”

“Do you think this qualify as a potential fraud case?”

“Eh…”

-Long Pause-

“Is there someone I can talk to regarding this case? This is so unethical!”

“I can check if my manager is around.”

5 mins later, she returned.

“Alright, I will make an exception for you this time round.”

Bingo!

Notice how my friend used some of the negotiation tools to save $160? He did it with absolute style without burning any bridges or hurting any relationships.

Update: He decided to close his bank account after the charge was waived. Well…

Sometimes we do get to deal with someone who’s really pompous. I know, you just feel like kicking him in the ass. This type of people dominate conversations. “Listen” is not a word in his dictionary. You are going to face a lot of difficulty trying to get him to shut-up and listen to you. What do you do? Listen!

Never try to rebuke, use sarcasm or attack him back. Perhaps he is really narcissistic and seeks every opportunity to try to showoff. Help him to achieve what he wants. If he wants glory, tell him how closing this deal with you can achieve that goal. If he is concern with his own personal reputation, tell his how closing this deal can do just that.

Everyone seeks recognition. This is even more so for him. Give him what he wants. Stroke his ego if you have to. An important thing to note is that you have to make him keep his promise. You don’t want them to call him the next day only to find out that he has decided to change his decision. Keep everything documented. Get him committed and you are set to go.