Modern negotiation scholars advocate getting away from position-based bargaining in favor of “interest-based” bargaining- that is, trying to find a ‘win-win’ situation by looking at what each party’s interests are. However, as I write in the GGGG, there are some situations in life where interest-based negotiation simply isn’t practical or the norm. One of those is the classic market haggling situation.
Case in point, we were just in Hong Kong, where there’s a pretty standard convention for how the market vendors bargain. First, you ARE expected to haggle. The vendors almost won’t respect you if you don’t. Second, the process is almost completely position-based. She offers a price, by typing the amount in the calculator and showing it to you. You say no, no, no– and type in another price on the calculator and show it back. This goes back and forth, you eventually threaten to and then begin to walk away. Then the vendor comes down on price, typing a lower price into the calculator. You might ask if she’ll throw in something else (a smidgen of “expanding the pie”/interest-based bargaining here) for the quoted price. You either come to an agreement or not– and move on to the next vendor, who more or less carries the exact same items!
The reason for the calculator is partly because there is a language barrier– English vs. Cantonese in our case. One savvy merchant at the Jade Market on Kowloon had these printed up cards in English, and she laid down one (in succession, the first card is at top) each time we punched a too low number into the calculator. We thought this is was ingenious and had to laugh. Who knows if she meant to amuse us, or maybe, that was part of her strategy. Bottom line, she was a seriously shrewd, no-budging position-based bargainer. At her stall, we definitely overpaid for our “jade” tchotchkes– but the experience and photos were it worth it :)
Debra – I have to say thank you for not only the G4 book but specifically for the section on asking for what you want. (I also put Women Don’t Ask and Ask For It on my Amazon wishlist.) After I read the section on asking for what you want my friends and I went to a restaurant where we got absolutely terrible service, didn’t get half of what we ordered and then were charged for the items and full price for the meal. I worked up the courage to tell the server to remove the items and when the manager came over to apologize I also asked if there was anyway they could knock some more off the bill. We ended up getting a 10% discount on our bill and all because I asked for it!
Thank you for reminding me that is ok for woman to ask for what she wants.
that’s GREAT Amy! Congrats on asking for– and getting– what you wanted!