One of the first experiences I had with negotiation tips came from tips I got from people I follow on buying a car at a good price. Here’s a bit of what I learned…
The best time to buy a car is at the end of a month based on car salesman sales cycles. They’re more likely to give you a better price. Source: Brian Tracy’s book on negotiation
The ideal time of year is towards the end (Oct-Dec) because salesman are trying to hit their quotas. Source: Ramit Sethi
And then there’s Ramit’s fax negotiation tip. It was written a while ago, so you can probably use email nowadays.
The Fax Negotiation Technique:
You can use the fax negotiation method so that you don’t have to deal with car salesman in person and their slimy tactics. And you can negotiate at scale. Here’s how it works:
Do good research and decide on the exact make and model of car you want. Use the website below to find the exact cost the dealerships pay for the car before selling it to you. Contact 10 to 20 car dealerships in your area telling them you’ve done your research, you know the exact make/model/year and will be buying one no matter what in 2 weeks (or 3), you know how much they paid for it, and will be deciding based on lowest price.
They will send their offers from there. Once you got the lowest offer, fax that price back to all the other companies and ask if they would like to counter one last time. Take the lowest offer.
Best website to research advice on car negotiation, deals, etc.: http://fightingchance.com/
And last but not least, there’s Warren Buffett’s advice.
If you can, you should get a hail-damaged car. They’re cheaper and the damage is unnoticeable and indistinguishable.
Hail damage is any damage resulting from hailstones and hailstorms.
Enter Chris Voss
Little did I know that this was barely negotiation. The real art of negotiation is an entire skillset.
I heard about Chriss’s book Never Split the Difference for years because it was big in Silicon Valley. But I didn’t end up reading it until recently, when I had more need for negotiation tips when it came to negotiating rent.
I learned so many amazing things from his book. He is a seasoned, respected FBI hostage negotiator. There’s so much you can learn here to apply to making more income or reducing expenses. But negotiating also happens in various situations, big and small, from conversations with peers, children, or your day-to-day.
Here’s my podcast episode summarizing some of my lessons learned.
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