Whether you’re negotiating your salary or some other kind of business deal, there are a lot of ways you can approach it. A recent study suggests, however, that the best strategy might be to make a “bolstering range offer”.
Photo by blu-news.org
The study, led by Daniel Ames and Ting Tsung at Columbia Business School, compared five different negotiating strategies — shown above — to see which one gave the best deal while still being reasonably effective. What their findings suggested was that bolstering range offers got better overall deals, yet they weren’t seen any more negatively than other strategies. The way a bolstering range offer works is by giving a price range starting at your desired target price and going up to a reasonable maximum. In their example, if your target is $100 for providing a service, you would make an offering range from $100 to $120.
With this type of negotiation style you are more likely to get your target and also avoid losing the interest of the other party. The other party might think that $110 is a reasonable price point, giving you a boost, or they will at least feel like they’re getting the best deal possible agreeing to your desired target price point.
When It Comes to an Opening Number, Sometimes the Best Bargaining Move is to Offer Two [Columbia Business School via Business Insider]
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