/r/negotiation

Photograph via snooOG

What's the point?

Everyone negotiates just about every day. It is so ubiquitous that you may not even realize how often you do it.

In any instance in which the future actions of individuals or groups of individuals is uncertain, there is the opportunity for negotiation.

Even if you think you are good at negotiating, you absolutely can get better. And if you're like most people you probably overestimate your abilities.

Being a better negotiator will improve your life in significant ways.


Other Interesting Subs

r/Business

r/Mediation

r/Entrepreneur

/r/conflictresolution


Subreddit Rules

We've never needed formal rules here so these are a first. This sub is lightly moderated because there has never been any need to do more. But just in case some written rules might be needed, here they are:

1) No spam.

2) Be excellent to each other.

3) No marketing / collecting emails etc. unless you have a prior SIGNIFICANT history of contributing to this sub. And even then, don't overdo it. You're still expected to only market your product/service/website etc. when it makes sense given your post/comment and definitely do NOT market or provide a link etc. every time you post/comment.

4) No direct links to twitter / x.

5) Anything else, in the opinion of the mods, that is consistent with ensuring this sub is a respectful place to learn and share ideas.

/r/negotiation

15,931 Subscribers

0

I have a funny video but no socials

I have a hilarious video but no socials, every one tells me it'll go viral and I 100% believe it too, what would be the best way to make some coin with this? I thought of trying a company like junkin media or keep it exclusive and contact tv shows but that would consume a lot of time and doesn't generate that passive income I hope for. Thanks for any advice!

2 Comments
2025/01/31
00:06 UTC

1

Not sure what I did? Rescinded offer

Hello all I was excited to start my new job as I have been offered to make a salary as a safety and security specialist for 65k in New York. Now this slash is slightly below market value but they have pretty good benefits, 30 days PTO with 6 holidays, and offer some sort of google certification tuition discounts. Now I emailed and asked wary if they could reach my salary expectations and they said they had a strict budget which I under stood, but then asked if there was any additional incentives such as sign on bonus or maybe even reviewing my performance at the end of 6months. Two days later I gave it some thought and decided to sign the offer, but later the same day received an email stating I may not be a good fit as my needs are above what they are able to do.. I’m not sure my actions warranted this as I was professional with my email and was just asking questions. Are the chances that I may receive the offer again unlikely? Or did I dodge a bullet

10 Comments
2025/01/31
00:02 UTC

2

Non-Exempt to Exempt Salary

So I just received news this morning about my companies annual reviews for raises/promotions. HR wants to give me a 15% bump from ≈$55,000 to ≈$65,000 per year for my role as an automation technician.

It’s a weird situation in the first place since I’m the only automation technician and the union made a big deal about it when the job was created. So no more technician jobs opened up in the 3 years I’ve had the role.

It’s a great pay increase but my issue is that I work ≈70 hour weeks with 1.5x and 2.0x pay on sundays, also standard plus 2.0x if I come in on holidays and they want to cut my overtime eligibility with this. Meaning I would be capped at 50 hours of pay per week max of straight 1.0x pay.

Is there any way to leverage or negotiate the numbers to keep my non-exempt status? I was thinking if negotiating is an option to ask for 10% with non-exempt status and going from there.

Any advice would be appreciated.

3 Comments
2025/01/30
14:28 UTC

0

Gym Joiner Fee

I want to join a gym that waives the joiner fee if you pay the entire year ahead. I don't want to pay the year upfront, but this makes me think this fee is negotiable. For somebody new to negotiation and not big on confrontation, how would you approach/word asking for this?

1 Comment
2025/01/30
13:45 UTC

1

Time is Strategy

As in soccer, for the negotiator, the use of time is a strategic factor: having control of the pace of the negotiation, through silences and pauses, is a powerful tool to put pressure on the other party or to gain a psychological advantage.

0 Comments
2025/01/29
14:42 UTC

4

Advice Needed for Salary Negotiation at a Startup

Hi everyone,
I’m currently in a tricky situation at my startup job and would love your advice.

Two years ago, I joined a promising VC-backed startup after my plan to start at a large company with a salary of €60,000–€65,000 fell through due to a global hiring freeze. At the startup, I was offered a salary of €45,000 and shares worth €3,000, which were set to vest after two years.

After my first year, I received a raise of €7,500. However, this raise came from converting €5,000 worth of shares into salary—not by choice, but due to legal restrictions that prevented the shares from being assigned. Had I kept the shares, they’d be worth double that by now. To make matters worse, if this conversion hadn’t been done, my raise would have been just €2,500, which didn’t even keep up with inflation.

Now, I’m up for a promotion to Associate Product Manager, and I’ve learned that newly hired designers are being offered €75,000—much higher than my current salary. I have a background in both design and development and currently handle all design work, including migrating to a new component library and design system, while collaborating closely with the dev team.

The company has raised investments in the double-digit million range, so I know there’s funding available. I’m feeling frustrated and unsure how to approach my upcoming salary negotiation. Any advice on how to make a strong case?

10 Comments
2025/01/27
13:34 UTC

3

Is the Karrass - Effective Negotiating seminar worth it?

It came up during a surge, and it sounds promising. Has anyone taken it within the last year?

6 Comments
2025/01/26
02:03 UTC

6

Negotiate the salary after receiving a offer letter

Hi Reddit,

I just received an offer letter that matches my initial salary request, but now I think I lowballed myself. My salary range that I provided was $44k to $50k, and they offered me $47k. The fact is that I would really prefer to receive $50k. I don’t know why I didn’t mention during the interview that I would prefer something around $50k or more. Well, my mistake, because I thought I would lose the opportunity to join this company.

Anyway, I have three days to accept or reject the offer. Do you have any advice on how to negotiate after receiving an offer letter? Did I lose my negotiation power already? During my last conversation with HR, they mentioned that they are focusing on me because I am a great match for the role, but I'm sure they have a pool of candidates since it is a huge organization (a bank).

(P.S. I have completed six rounds of interviews for this role.)

Any Advice?

6 Comments
2025/01/23
14:17 UTC

1

Negotiation allowance to sublet apartment

Hi guys,

I'm looking on negotiation advice on how to getting approval to allow subletters in my apartment 5 days weekly, as I got a job where I am working all weekdays in another part of the country. It is simply to cut costs down as otherwise it is too much for me.

My landlord denied upon request, even thought the public rules made it seem possible and told me it was only allow d for at least 2-room apartments (I have a 1-room).

I didnt really try to negotiate anything, but now that I know a little bit more about what is possible with the right negotiation techniques I thought I would give it a try.

I have planned to do a voice call with me landlord (previous talks have been via e-mails) and will first summarize the situation. I then plan to do an accusations Audit (yes im reading Chris Voss) and say "it seems like you prefer stability among your renters?" "It seems like 1 room apartments have different rules than 2 rooms?"

I'll then go to calibrated questions like "How can we make it possible for me to sublet?" "What is the core issue thats not making subletting possible for me?"

And thats its so far. Do you have any tips for me? Im by no means a negotiation expert (yet) ;)

0 Comments
2025/01/20
16:52 UTC

1

Am I being manipulated?

My first post in this sub, so please excuse if I violated the reddiquette in any way

Hi all,

I need your opinion on the following situation:

The beginning:

  • I am looking to buy property and found an object that would be a pretty good fit
  • the asking price is P, but the real estate broker told me informally that the owner would also accept a deal at 10k less
  • the property will need a few investments in the upcoming years, which is likely why nobody else closed yet
  • I assured the broker that I am interested

What happened next:

  • the broker told me that another firm has found_another_ buyer who is willing to pay the asking price
  • my broker says they didn’t know about this and are willing to take 10k less commission so that I can offer 10k more to outbid the other buyer
  • I think this sounds odd but agree to the deal

Then:

  • I learn through a colleague of my broker that the other buyer only offered 10k below asking price (remember: my broker wanted me to offer 10k above asking price and neglected to give me this info)
  • my broker did not tell me whether the seller agreed to the new deal
  • instead my broker contacts me to ask whether I already have the money ready, the seller wants to have written confirmation by the end of the day that I can pay the asking price + 10k

Am I being manipulated by my broker here? They are my only source of information in this deal. Or is this perhaps legitimate and my delay could cost me a good deal?

How should I proceed?

3 Comments
2025/01/20
16:23 UTC

0

Hiring negotiators without testing their negotiation skills?

That’s like hiring a chef without tasting their food!

3 Comments
2025/01/19
14:16 UTC

5

I am trying to improve my negotation skills what do you think of these tips. are they any good?

6 Comments
2025/01/18
23:15 UTC

9

Need a strategy for blind negiotation

Greetings, I am in talks with a hotel who wants my service for 5 days during Valentine's Week.

The problem is that I'm bidding against another service provider to see who can bid the lowest.

I don't like this game. Not sure how I can win.

Here are a few facts about me:

- I've provided this service for a decade

- I've worked with similar hotels during this event week

- In addition to my service, I attempt to go viral in social media, which benefits the hotel and I

I don't know who this other provider is, nor of their price. And the event planner will not say.

BUT there are few providers who have as much experience as me, so, I don't want to undercut myself.

Anyway, the last event I did, I charged $500 for 3 hours of work.

I've never done 5 consecutive days for 2 hours of work, plus the big V-day evening.

What should I do?

10 Comments
2025/01/13
20:41 UTC

10

How do you guys master silence?

I work in a call centre for an Internet service provider, and silence in between saying something to a customer or even in a discussion at home is so painful to me. Maybe due to my adhd and my anxiety. I feel like I master the empathy side of it, even if that makes me anxious to think that they think I am a pushover. I just need the silence down.

16 Comments
2025/01/11
20:35 UTC

4

Negotiating when someone thinks your wronged them

I read Chris Voss's negotiation book and thinking of how I can apply those principals to my situation. How do I stay friendly and de-escalate the damands to fix a perceived wrong? Do I even need to change their mind that I did something wrong or just let them know that I hear what they said and understand how they feel?

Here's the situation: We are in the process of buying a house. The owners are supper stubborn and not willing to give up an inch past what we agreed on in the contract, even though there's some deficiencies that have come up in the home inspection. Granted they did go down quite significantly from their listing price. About 20%. So they said the house comes as is. But from our side, you don't know all the problems when you put an offer in, so the value does change when unknown problems become apparent.

Anyways. It's the holidays, so when I put in the offer, I brought up the possible problem with having standard contingency deadlines, because things will likely take longer. They refused and even asked for shorter contingencies for the inspection period. In order to do the deal, I agreed. We got all the inspections out of the way pretty quickly actually. The problem that we ran into was the loan contingency.

The underwriting and ordering of the appraisal took longer than expected. So our loan contingency deadline passed without us removing the loan contingency. There's a question of weather the appraiser raises any concerns about the safety of the home, which would need to addressed before they would approve the loan.

Due to the holidays, the owners are asking for an extension for them to move their stuff, or an extension of the closing. With the rates up, it will likely cost me extra to extend the closing date, or I will be paying mortgage for the extra time they want to move their things. I don't want to do that. And they don't want to pay for it either.

They feel that because the loan contingency has not been removed that I owe them something. They are demanding that I give them the additional time for free.

I asked them if that means that they want to kill the deal, and they said no. They also haven't given me a notice to perform, which would give an additional two days to remove contingencies.

I feel likely they are being unreasonable. We both want to close the deal, and the situation is out of both of our hands, nothing I can do or could have done to make the loan approval go faster, and there's no way I'm risking losing $10k deposit by removing contingency early.

How would you recommend that say no, de-escalate the situation, stay friendly, and move the situation towards a place where we are getting along? Are these even the right goals? lol. I could potentially just ignore it and just wait. I don't think they will blow up the deal due to this one part. They want to close as well. And honestly, the appraisal report will be finished tomorrow or the next day. Even if they sent me a notice to perform, I would have enough time to get the info and make a decision. But I would like for everyone to walk away with good will towards each other.

18 Comments
2025/01/06
04:05 UTC

6

Do you have any book recommendations on the differences between Power and Negotiation?

My sub-question is this: So much in the negotiation world seems to depend on making the other person think they're in control and that the solution to (give you x y z, money, service, etc etc) is their idea.

Well, if you constantly make another person feel like they are in control, eventually they are going to believe they are the one in control and potentially veer off course.

I might be leaning more towards leadership than power. But, how do you tow the line between letting the other person make the decision, while also respecting that you still have a say in what happens (or even more than just a say) ?

It's over the top but I keep thinking of that Rick and Morty scene where Jerry tries to negotiate over "croutons" and Rick tells Jerry that "God doesn't haggle over 10,000 fucking croutons" and the act of negotiating instead of demanding/ignoring, in short, weakens their position.

7 Comments
2025/01/03
19:21 UTC

3

Negotiations in Sopranos

The scene where Janice says she wants 3000 to talk about Ralphies sex life, makes Tony ask how she came up with that number. She said ‘it was a number she thought he would say yes to’.

There are so many lessons in this little scene than the entire show on the topic of negotiation.

  1. She did not give up info for free knowing its value to the customer. The customer came to her for the info.

  2. She knew more or less how much cash Tony carries on him

3 She guessed the at 3k was not being too greedy. 10k maybe would make him balk. 1k would work but she couldn’t stand leaving money on the table.

  1. She had an established relationship and was credible enough for the info.

So many people negotiate greedily. I remember a young Ivy League graduate wanted 300k for her first job with the startup we worked at. She had no experience!

I know so many others that don’t realize their own value and are taken advantage of.

Have courage to push for the medium to higher end range of what you believe the other party is willing to give up. But don’t be stupid enough to make them run away!

0 Comments
2025/01/01
01:54 UTC

4

Your Perception ≠ Reality

Imposter Syndrome thrives on distorted thinking—minimising successes, magnifying failures, or comparing your behind-the-scenes struggles to others’ polished exteriors.

Objectively reviewing your achievements can challenge these mental distortions.

0 Comments
2024/12/22
06:01 UTC

11

Is my negotiation tactic a bad one?

I’m new to the “study” of negotiation but am trying to learn more. As a business owner, I negotiate daily (salaries, proposals, vendors, you get the idea).

My style of negotiation has been one that prioritizes speed (many negotiations going on all the time) and keeping non-adversarial relationships (especially so with employees and vendors where we have long relationships ships)

The style is basically presenting what I’m hoping to get out of the deal and then asking them what they hope to get from the deal. Usually this face to face conversation is after a text-based “ask” from either me or them such as via email.

If the original ask from them is one I don’t find reasonable, I usually will straight up say why, focusing on the risks to me and asking either directly or indirectly how we could de-risk the deal.

This approach usually does a good job of putting us in a place of problem solving towards a mutually favorable outcome rather than an adversarial one.

Where I want feedback: To me this seems like a very rushed and perhaps half-baked approach to negotiation. It hasn’t necessarily worked poorly for me but I can’t help but feel there’s some optimizations that can be made.

I often get the feedback of “oh that was easier than I thought” which I have mixed feelings on. I wonder if they find it “easy” because I gave into their ask more than they really needed or if it’s because the conversation was effectively done in a positive and collaborative way.

Any thoughts?

12 Comments
2024/12/18
03:32 UTC

7

Trump's Shock Request Of SoftBank CEO Makes Him Laugh

Trump is speaking with SoftBank CEO and asks for $200B in front of reporters after asking for $100B. Anyone care to explain the negotiation tactics for Trump asking for $200B? Starts at 4:05. YouTube

1 Comment
2024/12/17
11:32 UTC

1

Negotiating for first time dept renting

Hi guys. I will negotiate for first time a department for renting. Do you have any real world advice?

2 Comments
2024/12/15
16:36 UTC

5

Negotiation approach

Read enough on here to know there's some good advice around.

I'm not a great negotiator. To me makes sense to just say what I want/will accept, if you like it great, and if not we're done. This doesn't work great in the real world...

Now, in a contentious court situation. Other party has been very very aggressive and has the upper hand, but now they're supposedly financially exhausted from their efforts and saying they want to settle (they have a commodity I want, I hold the finances)

They reached out to me (outside of the lawyers) asking what I'm looking for (generally worded) to settle. There's only one offer I'll accept to settle (big ask), and I have the resources to continue a prolonged court battle (they supposedly do not). My lawyer and advisors all agreeing I should ask them for an offer and go from there. But given how aggressive they've been, and that they're low on money, I want to just say here's what I'll accept, take it or see you in court.

Why is my straightforward strategy, though intuitive, not successful?

What would you do,

7 Comments
2024/12/15
08:32 UTC

3

How much can I negotiate?

4 Comments
2024/12/14
21:46 UTC

5

Am I lowballing too much?

I’ve recently started my watch trading venture and have been exploring used marketplaces to find individuals selling their watches. However, most of the sellers I come across are dealers who are usually unwilling to negotiate prices. My main focus is on consumers looking to sell their watches.

  • first offer 750€ for a Tag heuer WAZ1110.BA0875

Listing price was 1200€ I offered 750€ Same models used on eBay were going for 600-900/1k€ Based on the conditions

-2nd listing price 2.2k € For a Tag Heuer WAY201T.BA0927

I offered 1750€ Then I told him the market value was around 1.5k-1.9k and my offer was good

But he the seller said he doesn’t wanna lower the price

Both watches were new and worn only few times

I did my research before giving them an offer which were a win for me and for the seller too and they offers where competitive too

Are my offers too low? Any way I can improve my negotiating skills ? Did I do my price research wrong ?

To me it looks like since they were already in loss they are trying to sell it for as much as possible by being firm to their prices

5 Comments
2024/12/12
17:20 UTC

10

I have, for many years, been obsessed with this video. It clearly demonstrates the effectiveness and, more importantly, the ineffectiveness of ultimatums when negotiating. Plus , it is just a beautiful, heart-wrenching short film. Learn from it what you will.

0 Comments
2024/12/10
06:30 UTC

12

Chris Voss In Practice

I see a ton of videos of Chris Voss explaining his techniques, but does anyone have a link to a good video of someone using the techniques successfully? I can’t find any!

Understanding the explanation of techniques is one thing, but I’d like to see them in real life.

25 Comments
2024/12/07
23:41 UTC

2

Gap partnership experience?

I'm looking for an intermediate to advanced negotiation course and read about the Gap Partnership on Reddit along with that they are very expensive. Can anyone share how much you (or your company) paid for a training with them? And, if you have time, could you describe the experience?

1 Comment
2024/12/05
23:09 UTC

2

Can I salvage this situation ?

Context: I 24M work as Product Owner in a Business that develops software or anything related. It is a rather small business and operation so I take on more resposability than I should and so does everybody else. We work as a team. The Company Owner or "my boss", he finds the clients and make the contracts. He negotiate with a Client, let's call the client Joe. He negotiated with Joe to "MODERNIZE" Joe's website, this is a keyword. Joe is a smart and seems to be an honest guy.

As I did my job, part of it was to show our progress to Joe, but every time i did a presentation Joe would get more and more upset. after the 4th presentation I can safely say his satisfaction with the project was 3 out of 10.

Obviously I did try to mend things and show how willing we were to change things to his liking and make sure everything developed was up to expectations, but the bomb dropped on the 5th presentation. I took some of his complaints to our devs, but knowing that it was most likely outside of the agreed upon work, we ended up making estimate of how much it would cost.

On the 5th presentation, I showed everything we were doing and after that I presented the price estimate to some of the requested changes. Since it was outside of the original scope. and right as I finished it, the bomb dropped. His words were " why should I pay extra ? This is INSIDE of the project scope, this is exacly why I'm unsatisfied, how can you tell me you won't do it unless I pay if I already paid for it ?" we talked a bunch and got on the same page.

Turns out my boss used the world "MODERNIZE" to tangle Joe, and made a contract that only included a "theme" change to his website, and some back-end work too. Joe is pissed and wants to cancel the contract.

This wednesday 4/12 there will be the next meeting, not sure if I'll be able to take a part in it.

Is there anything that can be done to solve this situation ? The only way foward I see is either loose the client or accept their demands and do the d*cking job properly like we were meant to do ? knowing my boss and his antics, if he loose the client I'm more than ready to quit. I simply cannot stay with this guy, it isn't the first client he bamboozles and I'm tired of having to keep his lies up. I feel like I'm draggin my whole team through the mud and I is against my morals to keep this up.

The first contracts I though there were somethings off about them, now this last one I can clearly see the malice through my boss actions and I want noone of it. I'm making my mind still, but I think I'll quit regardless of the outcome of this next meeting...

Business is Business but I choose to uphold my morals and ethic.

1 Comment
2024/12/02
13:06 UTC

3

Parental negotiation help

Hi, so this sounds crazy but I need help convincing my mother to let me go to the doctor for my iron deficiency anaemia. I’ve been really sick lately struggling with this deficiency (severe and constant fatigue, heart problems, cognitive impairment, fainting, weakness, postural hypotension, etc) but I’m struggle to muster up the courage to ask my mother if I can go to the doctor because I know her answer will be no- if it’s something we can fix at home with over-the-counter medication then she’ll take that over being safe and seeing our doctor to save money. I am all for saving money, but the thing is that the over-the-counter vitamin fizzies that my mom wants me to drink are too weak for me, I don’t know what it is but they just don’t work for me and my mother thinks I’m lying when I tell her that they’re too weak. I am planning on explaining my symptoms, my concerns and the long term effects that this deficiency can have on me, but I just need some help with the words. Please keep in mind that she is a very stubborn women and is very set in her ways (if any of the suggestions don’t work I will resort to makeup and rotting in bed- an act to make her actually worried lmao). Anything helps, thanks for reading! 🩷

7 Comments
2024/11/27
23:09 UTC

4

I recently found out that 4 feet of the space where we park actually belongs to my neighbor. Since its the only place we can park. I’m considering purchasing 2ft along the driveway. I’m thinking of offering between $10,000 and $20,000. not sure how to approach making an offer. do is 10k seem to low?

I calculated that the price per square foot for that piece of land is about $8,000. I want to make sure the offer is appealing enough to get them interested in selling, but I’m not sure if starting at $10,000 would be too low. What do you all think?

13 Comments
2024/11/26
04:27 UTC

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