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

1. Set your target price (your goal).
2. Set your first offer at 65 percent of your target
price.
3. Calculate three raises of decreasing increments
(to 85, 95, and 100 percent).
4. Use lots of empathy and different ways of saying
“No” to get the other side to counter before you
increase your offer.
5. When calculating the final amount, use precise,
nonround numbers like, say, $37,893 rather than
$38,000. It gives the number credibility and
weight.
6. On your final number, throw in a nonmonetary
item (that they probably don’t want) to show
you’re at your limit.
The genius of this system is that it incorporates the
psychological tactics we’ve discussed—reciprocity, extreme
anchors, loss aversion, and so on—without you needing to

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think about them.
If you’ll bear with me for a moment, I’ll go over the
steps so you see what I mean.
First, the original offer of 65 percent of your target price
will set an extreme anchor, a big slap in the face that might
bring your counterpart right to their price limit. The shock of
an extreme anchor will induce a fight-or-flight reaction in all
but the most experienced negotiators, limiting their
cognitive abilities and pushing them into rash action.
Now look at the progressive offer increases to 85, 95,
and 100 percent of the target price. You’re going to drop
these in sparingly: after the counterpart has made another
offer on their end, and after you’ve thrown out a few
calibrated questions to see if you can bait them into bidding
against themselves.
When you make these offers, they work on various
levels. First, they play on the norm of reciprocity; they
inspire your counterpart to make a concession, too. Just like
people are more likely to send Christmas cards to people
who first send cards to them, they are more likely to make
bargaining concessions to those who have made
compromises in their direction.
Second, the diminishing size of the increases—notice
that they decrease by half each time—convinces your
counterpart that he’s squeezing you to the point of breaking.
By the time they get to the last one, they’ll feel that they’ve
really gotten every last drop.
This really juices their self-esteem. Researchers have

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found that people getting concessions often feel better about
the bargaining process than those who are given a single
firm, “fair” offer. In fact, they feel better even when they
end up paying more—or receiving less—than they
otherwise might.
Finally, the power of nonround numbers bears
reiterating.
Back in Haiti, I used to use the Ackerman system
ferociously. Over eighteen months we got two or three
kidnappings a week, so from experience, we knew the
market prices were $15,000 to $75,000 per victim. Because
I was a hard-ass, I made it my goal to get in under $5,000 in
every kidnapping that I ran.
One really stands out, the first one I mentioned in this
book. I went through the Ackerman process, knocking them
off their game with an extreme anchor, hitting them with
calibrated questions, and slowly gave progressively smaller
concessions. Finally, I dropped the weird number that
closed the deal. I’ll never forget the head of the Miami FBI
office calling my colleague the next day and saying, “Voss
got this guy out for $4,751? How does $1 make a
difference?”
They were howling with laughter, and they had a point.
That $1 is ridiculous. But it works on our human nature.
Notice that you can’t buy anything for $2, but you can buy
a million things for $1.99. How does a cent change
anything? It doesn’t. But it makes a difference every time.
We just like $1.99 more than $2.00 even if we know it’s a

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trick.