Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

3. ESTABLISH A RANGE
While going first rarely helps, there is one way to seem to
make an offer and bend their reality in the process. That is,
by alluding to a range.

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What I mean is this: When confronted with naming your
terms or price, counter by recalling a similar deal which
establishes your “ballpark,” albeit the best possible ballpark
you wish to be in. Instead of saying, “I’m worth $110,000,”
Jerry might have said, “At top places like X Corp., people in
this job get between $130,000 and $170,000.”
That gets your point across without moving the other
party into a defensive position. And it gets him thinking at
higher levels. Research shows that people who hear extreme
anchors unconsciously adjust their expectations in the
direction of the opening number. Many even go directly to
their price limit. If Jerry had given this range, the firm
probably would have offered $130,000 because it looked so
cheap next to $170,000.
In a recent study,4 Columbia Business School
psychologists found that job applicants who named a range
received significantly higher overall salaries than those who
offered a number, especially if their range was a “bolstering
range,” in which the low number in the range was what they
actually wanted.
Understand, if you offer a range (and it’s a good idea to
do so) expect them to come in at the low end.
4. PIVOT TO NONMONETARY TERMS
People get hung up on “How much?” But don’t deal with
numbers in isolation. That leads to bargaining, a series of
rigid positions defined by emotional views of fairness and
pride. Negotiation is a more intricate and subtle dynamic

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than that.
One of the easiest ways to bend your counterpart’s
reality to your point of view is by pivoting to nonmonetary
terms. After you’ve anchored them high, you can make
your offer seem reasonable by offering things that aren’t
important to you but could be important to them. Or if their
offer is low you could ask for things that matter more to you
than them. Since this is sometimes difficult, what we often
do is throw out examples to start the brainstorming process.
Not long ago I did some training for the Memphis Bar
Association. Normally, for the training they were looking
for, I’d charge $25,000 a day. They came in with a much
lower offer that I balked at. They then offered to do a cover
story about me in their association magazine. For me to be
on the cover of a magazine that went out to who knows how
many of the country’s top lawyers was priceless advertising.
(Plus my mom is really proud of it!)
They had to put something on the cover anyway, so it
had zero cost to them and I gave them a steep discount on
my fee. I constantly use that as an example in my
negotiations now when I name a price. I want to stimulate
my counterpart’s brainstorming to see what valuable
nonmonetary gems they might have that are cheap to them
but valuable to me.