When negotiating don’t be smart — play dumb.
Do not approach a negotiation appearing to know everything there is to know.
Do not approach a real estate agent, for example, when buying a home and say that you’ve been researching this area for the last six months, you already attended different auctions and you know exactly what this house is worth.
The first thing that is going to happen is that the agents will give you very little information.
The best way to approach it is to be curious and inquisitive, it’s to be ‘dumb’.
Say to the agent that you haven’t been in this area before, and ask to provide some guidelines.
That’s how to approach it.
Because that is disarming.
It’s very difficult not to give someone information who appears helpless and just curious and inquisitive.
The best example of this is Columbo.
Those who are a little younger don’t know who Colombo is.
He was a murder detective and he was successful because he was able to ‘play dumb’.
He wore a raincoat, he had a haircut, as if he had just woken up and he always looked very confused.
So people were very willing to give him information.
And he was able to then take that information, use it to his advantage, and make some pretty informed decisions.
So during the negotiations play dumb.
Be like Columbo.
No comments:
Post a Comment