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

POSITIVE LEVERAGE
Positive leverage is quite simply your ability as a negotiator
to provide—or withhold—things that your counterpart
wants. Whenever the other side says, “I want . . .” as in, “I
want to buy your car,” you have positive leverage.
When they say that, you have power: you can make their
desire come true; you can withhold it and thereby inflict
pain; or you can use their desire to get a better deal with
another party.
Here’s an example:
Three months after you’ve put your business on the
market, a potential buyer finally tells you, “Yes, I’d like to
buy it.” You’re thrilled, but a few days later your joy turns
to disappointment when he delivers an offer so low it’s

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insulting. This is the only offer you have, so what do you
do?
Now, hopefully you’ve had contact with other buyers,
even casually. If you have, you can use the offer to create a
sense of competition, and thereby kick off a bidding war. At
least you’ll force them to make a choice.
But even if you don’t have other offers or the interested
buyer is your first choice, you have more power than before
your counterpart revealed his desire. You control what they
want. That’s why experienced negotiators delay making
offers—they don’t want to give up leverage.
Positive leverage should improve your psychology
during negotiation. You’ve gone from a situation where you
want something from the investor to a situation where you
both want something from each other.
Once you have it, you can then identify other things
your opponent wants. Maybe he wants to buy your firm
over time. Help him do that, if he’ll increase the price.
Maybe his offer is all the money he has. Help him get what
he wants—your business—by saying you can only sell him
75 percent for his offer.