You might not realize it, but negotiation is part of your everyday life, even when you don’t own a company. You probably negotiate at the farmer’s market for your vegetables, or with your kids about their homework. When you’re at work, you probably negotiate with other employees and customers about prices, services, and more. Wherever you are, there’s a proper way to negotiate, and here’s a few tips that can help you find it.

Use Your Listening Ear

Countless sales have been lost because someone isn’t listening well enough, and it’s usually not the customer. More often than not, we think a good sales pitch means that a lot of talking on our part has to occur. This isn’t necessarily the case. Ask your potential client how they feel about the situation. Feel out where they are and what they want, and venture away from scripted sales talk when you do speak. If they dance around the issue, make sure you tell them that they need to tell you what they want so you can give it to them.

Follow The Steps Closely

Your steps are as follows:

1. Gather everyone’s opening statements and positions.
2. Ask for more information with real interest.
3. Reach an agreement and seal the deal.

From your point of view, it may not look that easy. But in reality, it is. Negotiating with a client is almost like buying a house. You hear what the seller’s opening price is; you counter. It continues until you can reach an agreement, and then both of you compromise and live happily after. The words might be different when it comes to negotiating with people about services, but the idea is the same.

Don’t Use Round Numbers

$40 might be an easy number to understand, but $38 is too, and it looks a whole lot more appealing. Don’t use zeros when you’re coming to a number, and don’t say something like “50-ish” when talking about how much something will cost someone. Be exact, detailed, and adjust as needed. Why? If you’re charging $37 for a product and your opposing company is charging $40, it looks like you didn’t round up to make a few extra bucks and actually did the work involved to know