NLP-Podcast 109: Price Negotiations

Stephan Landsiedel interviews Claus Angerhofer. He lives in Klagenfurt, Austria. He has been a specialist in pricing, price negotiations, discounts, and similar matters for many years.
Claus studied technical physics. After his studies, he quickly landed in a large corporation in the purchasing department. For this company, he traveled worldwide and conducted purchasing negotiations. Fortunately, he was able to attend many training and further education events. However, there were never any events on price negotiations. Over the years, he has developed this knowledge from various sources. Today, he shares his knowledge in seminars. His clients could not be more diverse, ranging from companies with 10 employees facing a specific problem to publicly traded corporations.

As a consumer, one is often confronted with price negotiations. For example, when buying a house, an apartment, a car, or during salary negotiations with a boss. A few minutes of discussion can save a lot of money.

From the customer's perspective, the value of the product determines the price. For example, if I am driving on the highway in Austria where there is a speed limit of 130 km/h, I wouldn't buy a sports car. However, if I drive a lot in Germany, a Ferrari has much greater value for me. The perceived value for the customer can vary from situation to situation.

The art of buying or selling is learning where the pain threshold of the other party lies. After that, one might take a small step further and then decide whether to go through with the deal. The pain threshold is not discovered by bargaining but through a rule of three: The seller states he wants €100 for the product. The customer replies, 'Thank you for wanting that, but no, that's too much.' The third part is then, 'What else can you do?' The open question invites the seller to improve his offer. This works the same way for selling. This can also be implemented very quickly without years of training.

Stephan talks about his sales strategy and also discusses how to prepare well for a negotiation conversation. Listen to the entire episode to learn more. More information about Claus and videos on the topic of price negotiations can be found on his website.