With prices of homes and cars going up during COVID-19, it's a good time for consumers to sharpen their negotiating skills for big-ticket items. Andre Lares, a managing partner with Shapiro Negotiations Institute, shares four ways to save on big-ticket items.
1.) Do your research. If you're buying a car or a house, price comparing will get you ahead before you start negotiating.
"There really is no excuse for spending a couple of minutes even, because again, it's the two parts -- you actually do learn more, and it helps you really understand what is the market. But the second piece is, it makes you more confident, and really not enough can be said about the latter," said Lares.
2.) If a price drop isn't possible, add value to your purchase. For instance, here's what you can do for a hotel stay:
"The rate is $150 a night. It's unlikely they're just going to drop the rate down to $100. That's because corporate policy doesn't allow them to do that. But it's much more likely, for example, there you can ask for a free upgrade to a better room. So rather than looking at the street, you can look at the lake or the ocean. Or you can ask for free breakfast, or better internet," Lares said.
3.) If you're negotiating your work salary, aim high!
"All too often we negotiate with ourselves before we get there. Aiming as high as you can reasonably with precedent. Because if you don't have precedence, if you don't have something to defend it, you certainly are not going to be confident, which would then erode the probability of that happening," he explained.
4.) Script out what you want to say before you get to the bargaining table.
"That gets you to go through the negotiations once sort of in your head. So by the time you get to the actual negotiation, you feel like you've done it already," Lares said.
"If you're being too aggressive, [that] can damage relationships, but if you script it out, there's no reason it should get there," he added.
