4 ms·
I read on here few months ago that naming your own price first is better. Now I believe it! Recently we hired a sales person on PT basis. At the interview, she
by zaidf 17y ago
I read on here few months ago that naming your own price first is better. Now I believe it! Recently we hired a sales person on PT basis. At the interview, she gave her expected salary to be about 2.5 times what I had thought about paying her. Now, I know about this notion of anchoring and yet I felt kind of embarrassed to make my initial offer. I fought off the urge to buy into her frame and ultimately made a decent offer but it was still significantly higher than what I had originally planned...and I credit much of it to her naming her price first!
I do think there is an upper limit which if you cross, you risk getting the other party to TOTALLY ignore it as a joke. I came pretty close to doing that with our PT person.
- mcantor 17y agoIt feels so hilariously appropriate that you were hiring a sales person, and they did a spectacular job of, as they say, "selling themselves."
- whatusername 17y agohttp://xkcd.com/125/ http://xkcd.com/125/ covers it nicely.
- zaidf 17y agoYes, she is good :) Her accomplishments included talking herself out of four speeding tickets and from going to jail in Columbia. We'll know soon how well she's doing that magic in selling our product!
- ciniglio 17y agoI agree with you that it seems like there should be an upper limit. But if this article is correct about there not being a rebounding effect, then asking for an extravagant amount seems like your best move. Although I'm guessing that things are a bit different if they haven't indicated whether they plan to hire you or not, i.e. if this is something discussed in a screening interview, asking for an exorbitant salary will likely prevent you from moving forward. I'd also guess that in a trial, the plaintiff has no continued relationship with the jury, while in a job you probably don't want to have the reputation for being the person with completely deranged views of reality.
- timwiseman 17y agoYou make good points. But I think the difference is that juries have an absolute duty to try to be just. I think a lawyer is extremely unlikely to loose a case by trying to ask for too much money. On the other hand, a job candidate can loose the entire offer. If someone asks for a few grand more than what I was thinking, I think we can work something out and start negotiating. If someone asks for more than twice what I was thinking I may just keep looking.
- cubicle67 17y agoThe other difference is that the jury is spending other people's money
- zaidf 17y agoTo add to this, my Dad also uses this with car sales people. 1. He picks the absolute bottom price. 2. Calls up the area dealerships within 50 miles 3. Tells them the model, price and his phone number to call back when they are ready to give him at his price He totally shuts off any attempts by the sales people to erase my Dad's first number with their own by insisting he does not care about any extra features and other bs. His number is also terribly low(ALMOST but not totally in the you're joking category) so typically he can get the car within $500 of his quoted number. What does work for him is he communicates certainty of his decision to buy a car which is a tad easier because he is a surgeon.
- bantam 17y agoHow low is his lowest price usually under normal price?