Deception
in Negotiations
Throughout
my life, I have become quite the negotiator, so much so that my mom thinks I would
be a good lawyer. It is default to say whether she is right or not, but the
principle is still the same. I have learned how to negotiate with my
counterparts using four varying tactics: beginning with extreme demands, threatening
to walk away from the negotiation, sharing information voluntarily, making
unilateral concessions. For example, when my boyfriend and I went to purchase a
new car, we knew exactly what kind of car we wanted to buy and the price we wanted
to pay for it; so we went to the dealership with extreme demands. Of course, we
were willing to share our financial information with the sales manager in order
to obtain negotiating power. However, after a few hours of negotiating, the sales
manager informed us that he could not give us the price we wanted, so we
decided to walk away from the table. Just before leaving, the sales manager ran
after us and told us that he could stretch the figures in order to make it
happen. At that moment, we were both able to reach a unilateral concession; the
sales manager was able to make the sale and I was able to receive the price I
wanted for the car.
During
such extreme negotiations, like the one listed above, I have learned to ask direct
questions, listen carefully, pay attention to non-verbal clues, keep a record of
all quotes given and get things in writing. When dealing with a car salesman,
one must be careful not to get to comfortable. It is easy to be misled and/or taken
advantage of. For example, during this same negotiation, the sales manager
tried to flip us into a different car. He told us that the car was “pretty much
the same, it just didn’t have a sunroof or ground lighting”. But, after inspecting
the car, we found that the car was actually an SV model instead of an SL. Meaning
that it did not have leather seats, carbon fiber inserts, Bluetooth, tint, a
sunroof or ground lighting. He was basically trying to scam us into buying a cheaper
car. He even told us he could have leather put in the car, but we all know that
aftermarket leather is not as great a factory. This is the point where we
walked away.
However,
I cannot fault the sales manager for trying to make the sale, I too have
mislead someone before. When my boyfriend and I were trying to sell our truck,
we omitted telling the buyer that the driver side window seal needed to be
replaced, and that the rear deferential was leaking. Both are reality minor, but
we still lied. According to Schweitzer: (as cited in Hoch, Kunreuther, &
Gunther, 2001), “100 percent of negotiators either fail to reveal a
problem or actively lied about it during negotiations if they were not directly
asked about the issue”. This is exactly what we did, my boyfriend and I did not
mention either problem because the buyer failed to ask about them.
As I
stated in the discussion board, almost every actions
that is repeated is repeated based on personal gain”. Just like the
sales manager, we did not think about our actions, we simply did what we needed
to do to make the sale. And, unfortunately, if placed in a similar situation,
our decision would most likely be the same.
Reference
Hoch, S. J., Kunreuther, H. C. & Gunther, R. E. (Eds.).
(2001). Wharton on making decisions.
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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