How to Negotiate, According to a Wharton Professor
Next time you’re going toe-to-toe with that Craigslist seller or car salesman or cable company, consider Erica Boothby’s data-driven advice on how to haggle.
Raise your negotiating game with these expert tips. / Photograph by Olia Danilevich
Since 2019, social psychologist Erica Boothby has been teaching Wharton students the ins and outs of deal-making in her award-winning negotiation class. She also leads executive workshops on the topic, coaching CEOs and other leaders in the soft skills that research shows lead to more successful negotiating. So the next time you’re going toe-to-toe with that Craigslist seller or car salesman or cable company, you might want to consider Boothby’s data-driven advice on how to haggle.
Don’t forget to ask.
“Some cultures assume everything is negotiable,” Boothby says. Ours? Not so much. But you just gotta get over that, she says: There’s power in recognizing that there might be more on the table than you think. “A lot of us make the mistake of thinking that someone will tell us when something is an option,” she says. Like, say, a higher salary. A fee waived. An extra promotion applied to a sale item. “And then you find out later, ‘Ugh! I could have asked for that?’” If you want a better deal, Boothby says, you have to remember to seek it out.
Be charming.
When her students role-play in class as buyers and sellers negotiating a price, “they tend to just start in ‘go mode,’” she says, rather than taking a moment to chat or connect socially. “And that’s a missed opportunity. If people like you first, they’re more inclined to help you get what you want.” This doesn’t mean forging a deep relationship with everyone you meet on Facebook Marketplace, she allows, but “just being nice for a few minutes can help. Or bringing a little levity to it.” Time to start practicing your opening joke.
Fix your mindset.
Think of your negotiation less like a battle in which one side wins and the other side loses, Boothby advises, and more like a joint endeavor wherein both parties can get something they want. And about that, she adds — you really shouldn’t make assumptions about what those wants are. Instead? Ask questions; listen to the answers. “Research shows that skilled negotiators spend a lot more time asking questions than unskilled negotiators,” she says. Maybe price isn’t the seller’s paramount concern: Maybe it’s time. Or unloading whatever they’re selling. Or getting you out of their hair. “Once you learn where someone is coming from,” Boothby says, “you can leverage that for concessions about what you care about. You can ask for a lower price for being accommodating.”
Be precise.
Whether you’re talking gym memberships, used cars, or new salaries, you should know the comps and/or a reasonable range of asking prices, Boothby says, and then pick an aspirational but exact number at the top or bottom (depending on what you’re negotiating) of that range. That combo of research and precision, she says, makes the ask feel “more objective” and less like you’re just going hard for what you want.
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Published as “Expert Advice: How to Negotiate” in the October 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
