“$50!,” shouted the woman in the tangerine blouse.
“Do I hear $55?,” asked the auctioneer.
“$55!,” yelled the young man in black.
They were bidding over, and over bidding for, a piece of junk. A blue and white vase. A piece of faux chinoiserie that would sell for $7.95 at Tuesday Morning or maybe for $17.95 at Macy’s.
The reasons why contain a lesson for your next negotiation, whether that’s the sale of your group or the renegotiation of your employment agreement or any other deal:
1. We all want something that we cannot easily have. Others are bidding and we may not get the vase.
2. There’s a huge dose of social proof: If the other bidders want the vase, it must be valuable.
If you’re in the selling position (which might be an actual sale of an asset or might be the sale of your efforts and knowledge), take the time and effort to strategize about how you can create an auction, or an auction-like environment, for what you have to sell. In essence you’ll be using human nature to boost your result.
If you’re in the buying position (the flip side of any such deal), slow down the pace of the negotiation. Understand that although you may not be able to turn off the drives that are hardwired into us just as direction finding is hardwired into a carrier pigeon, once you are aware of how they distort your perception, you can temper your actions accordingly.
“$55! Do I hear $60?,” implored the auctioneer.
“$60!,” yelled the woman in tangerine.
