Pick a Number–Just Make Sure It’s a BIG One

April 24, 2006 by Liz

The First One to Pick a Number

HAS POWER. I found that out last night. It was exciting. Here’s what happened.

In yesterday’s article, Job [and Client] Hunting ala Liz, I added three bits of advice I had learned about negotiating meetings. This was one.

The first one to name a number loses. To me thatÃ¢â¬â¢s self-explanatory. If I say a number, theyÃ¢â¬â¢re not going to go higher. If they ask, I usually answer with . . . what the work is worth, letÃ¢â¬â¢s talk a little more about whatÃ¢â¬â¢s involved and what you usually pay for this kind of work.

I found out in less than 2 hours I was wrong. WAY COOL.

A Smart and Gracious Reader

A smart and gracious reader by the name of Tammy Lenski stopped by, and in the kindest way said

Liz, I love your articles and appreciated the advice in this one. I thought you might be interested in a bit of intriguing information related to your comment that the first one to name a number loses. ThereÃ¢â¬â¢s actually a fair amount of good evidence that naming the first number in a negotiation puts you in a more powerful position than if you let the other person name one first. I wrote about it in a post a while back: http://lenski.com/index.php/2005/05/good-negotiators-know-anchoring/ . Just some food for thought! Best wishes to you.

Food for thought. It was great! Talk about intriguing. It seems that my problem is I didn’t have the confidence to shoot for a number WAY up in the sky.

Go read Tammy’s article. It won’t take long, and it’s well worth reading. I’ll wait right here.

I could replay the rest, but it seems silly to do so when . . . You can read it starting with Mike Sigers comment that really got the ball rolling from there.

I love the Internet. I get smarter just being part of the conversation with you. That’s one heck of a benefit.

Thank you, Tammy, Mike, Ohad, Martin, and everyone else.

Brand you and me works.

–ME “Liz” Strauss