I’m going to share with you a powerful tip which will help you get what you want from people… a lot of the time… and have them think it was their idea.

Be warned… this is incredibly powerful.

This really is a case of “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”.

To highlight this I am going to share with you a quick true story.

Do you remember the other day when I shared with you the story about Andi and the copper water tank fiasco when he was renovating a house?

As part of the renovations he fitted that same house with all new uPVC windows and doors and it cost him no more than a couple of thousand pounds.

Not long after he spoke to a neighbour who had all new uPVC doors and windows fitted in their house which was basically the same shape and size as Andi’s.

The company who did the work was one of the larger nationwide companies.

While talking to the neighbour, Andi was amazed to hear that the cost to fit all the new windows and doors was somewhere around £12,000 (this was in 2000) … he was more amazed when he was told that the original price quoted was nearer £30,000.

Andi’s first thoughts were that this company were being a little unethical and had screwed his neighbour out of a lot of money… they had obviously over priced so that they could negotiate the price down and still get paid the amount they wanted.

You cannot knock £18,000 off a price and still make a profit unless you over priced by £18,000 in the first place!

What’s really interesting here is that the neighbour felt good that he had negotiated the deal down and was happy with the final price…

That was until Andi told him how much it cost him to fit out his own house and that he thought he had still been overcharged at £12,000!

So what am I getting at here?

When you ask someone for something you want, you should, in most cases, ask for double or more… it is a sure fire way of actually getting what you want.

One of the biggest problems people have is being afraid to ask for what they need or desire (and possibly deserve) let alone asking for more.

When a person is tied to a wage where each month they are just about managing, the idea of asking their boss for a pay rise scares them because they fear ‘rocking the boat’ and running the risk of being ‘sacked’.

When you NEED money, it is hard to confidently ask for more.

When you NEED the sale, it is hard to confidently ask for it.

But when it comes for asking for what you want, asking for double means that you actually have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Most people, whether they are your boss, a customer or a potential client, likes to get more for their money.

They want to get the best deal possible.

It’s simple human nature.

Many of them like to think that they are great deal negotiators so when you ask for double of what it is you actually need, they will try and haggle you down to get a better deal.

Test it out for yourself…

Go and run a stall at a local car boot sale and price half your items at twice the price you are happy to sell them for and price the other half at the exact price you wish to get for them and watch how bargain hunters will offer you less on all items.

It doesn’t matter if you price something at £5 or £2.50… most car booters will try their best to haggle you down.

If you want £2.50 for an old picture frame but you price it at £5 and someone offers you £3, you have made £0.50 profit as a bonus. You’ve lost nothing but gained £0.50.

If someone offers you £2.50 for another picture frame which you priced at £5 but really you wanted to take no less than £2.50… you have lost nothing because you still got what you wanted.

Ask £2.50 for an item which you want to sell for no less than £2.50… you will spend a lot of your time saying ‘no’ to people when they offer you less.

I remember seeing this in action in an episode of Call the Midwife where Dr Turner asked his superior for equipment and the approval to run a regular lung clinic for the local community.

He asked if he could do it several times each month… his superior eventually agreed to once a month.

Dr Turner later turned to his son who had been studying psychology and said ‘I did what you said and asked for more than I needed’. Where there were no clinics at all, he ended up with one a month.

Had he gone in and asked for the approval and equipment to run just one clinic a month, he might have walked away with none.

Asking double for what you want is a great little psychological trick to ensure that you walk away with what you want… or at least with something instead of nothing.

And it’s not just you that benefits here.

A great bonus for asking double for what you want is that when the other person haggles you down to half of what you asked for and you agree, they feel really great too!

They feel good because they believe that they have just negotiated themselves a 50% on-the-spot discount and still got what they wanted… your product or service.

I’m not saying that this will work 100% of the time or that it’s right to use it in every situation, but it will never work if you don’t try it.

The worst thing that can happen is that people say no, but it does leave room for conversation.

As in the example with Dr Turner in Call the Midwife, his initial request was denied but the subsequent conversation resulted in him getting what he wanted… to run a monthly lung clinic where there had been none.

There are some people who will say ‘no’ and walk away without wanting to talk any further, but you can always ask them ‘make me an offer’ or ‘what would you like to pay?’

Where there is the possibility for further conversation and you have given yourself a 50% wiggle room, there is still the opportunity to get what you really want.

It’s vital that you allow the other person(s) to suggest the lower price and haggle you down.

They need to feel that they ‘broke you down’ otherwise they will become incredible suspicious that you are willing to take a huge drop in price.

If you are the one to suggest a drop in price, do not in any circumstance drop it by 50% right away otherwise you will lose the sale.

The conversation will be dead in the water because you will have made the other person suspicious of you and your initial pricing.

They won’t appreciate the 50% discount you have just miraculously offered them… instead they will be annoyed that you were asking for twice as much in the first place.

They will think that you were trying to scam and rob them.

Remember, if you can make a profit from your agreed price, that means that you were actively trying to charge them over the odds where it was not needed, and people will not like that and they won’t forget it either.

So, as you can see, it is a powerful trick to help you get more of what you want, but you do have to be careful using it.

It can only be used on certain people and in certain situations.

Use it with the wrong people in the wrong situation and it can backfire badly and you could be accused of using unethical practices.

To conclude, I say use it… but use it wisely and only in the right situations.

Kind Regards

John Harrison

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