Negotiation Tool 9 : The Ackerman System

When negotiating, it’s always best to steer clear of a bargaining situation. But sometimes it’s unavoidable. Below are the stages of the Ackerman system. It’s paramount to employ tactical empathy between each round:

• Establish a target price for the goods you want to buy.
• Make an initial offer at 65 percent of your target price.
• Assuming no deal, raise your price by 20 percent.
• Assuming no deal, raise your price by 10 percent.
• If still no deal, raise by another 5 percent.
• Your final offer should be an odd number, and you should be prepared to include some non-monetary compensation to show them you’re committing all of your available resources.

The point of the Ackerman system is to make the other side feel that every price increase is creating a real burden for you. Resist the temptation to set an anchor price that is unreasonably low. Lowball offers can create negative emotions like resentment, and the deal will be doomed from the start. Preferable to back-and-forth bargaining are the kinds of collaborative efforts that make for great negotiations. By the time the other side asks you to make the first offer, you should have elicited enough information from them to know what a great deal would look like in their eyes. Alternatively, set a range for yourself that’s dictated by the market price and by what you can actually afford. Again, the goal is to build as much rapport as possible with your counterpart. Even when bargaining, the benefits of trust-based influence will outweigh a zero-sum approach.

Note : Since these are mostly notes, I have tried not to be extra creative with my sentences. The phrases are mostly extracted from the source, as they were. Due credits go to MasterClass.