Negotiation Tactic #17 – Sweetening the Deal

Summary: Adding an extra or add-on to make a deal work.

At times you may need to add a little something extra to make a deal work. For example, a salesperson may decrease the price of a product, add a warranty or training at no additional charge, or agree to extend a sale price to make a deal more enticing. This tactic of offering an extra or add-on is called Sweetening the Deal.

Example

A customer tells a carpet saleswoman, “Your carpet is a dollar per yard more expensive than your competitor’s.” The seller Sweetens the Deal by saying, “I will carpet each of your closets for free if you will sign the contract today.”

Counter

The Trade-off Concession could work well here. The customer might reply, “I will sign the contract today if you carpet the closets for free and can have the carpet installed by Friday of this week.” From the salesperson’s point of view, an effective counter to the customer’s counter would be, “I can install the carpet by Friday, but if you are looking for the highest-quality installation, keep in mind that my best installers will not be available until next Wednesday. Will that work for you?”

Have you used or encountered this tactic in your negotiations? If so, how’d it go?

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