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How to Negotiate Your Car Value for the Best Price

How to Negotiate Your Car Value for the Best Price


The best tips on how to negotiate the best car price like a pro and why people are asking for how to negotiate a salary or a raise, especially when things get stuck.


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro

We will be talking about the importance of preparation and then of being a good listener and understanding the motivations, especially the intangible ones. 

There are two modes of communication generally speaking. There is debate and there's dialogue. In debate mode, we're constantly looking for the holes in people's arguments so we can dive in and say ah-ha that's your problem and then you tear it apart. 

That doesn't work so well in the car value negotiation. You have to be in dialogue mode, you have to be in a mode where you're listening for what it is that they're really trying to achieve. Because if they don't get what they want, you don't get what you want. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


How Would You Define Car Value Negotiation


You're really negotiating anytime you have an issue or a challenge where you're trying to persuade the other or influence the other to do what it is that you would like. And that can be around an agreement or trying to work out a business deal for example. 

But it could also be if you and your child are disagreeing about something. You gotta explain why it is that they can't go out at night because you're worried about their safety and security, something along those lines. 

So it's anytime really that you engage in a conversation with somebody and there's an element of influence, persuasion and trying to meet your goals. 

That's the other piece of this is that when you go into negotiation the car value, you have an objective. And your objective is not necessarily to reach an agreement. It's actually to achieve whatever goal you set forth. And so I would add that to the definition is that it's a process where you're trying to achieve your goal really through persuasion, influence, etc. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


What Are Some Common Myths About Car Value Negotiation


Yeah, there's a lot, unfortunately. The first one is that it's a win-lose process. That someone's gonna gets something and someone's gonna lose it. And I think that a lot of people go into negotiation the car value with that mindset and your mindset matters a lot when you negotiate. Because the old adage of if everything looks like a nail you use a hammer. 

So I think that that's myth one. Another myth that's really important is that compromise is sort of syngamous with negotiation. That in order to reach some agreement I have to give something up that I really care about. 

Well, that's true to a degree in some Yeah, there's a lot, unfortunately. The first one is that it's a win-lose process. That someone's gonna gets something and someone's gonna lose it. 

I think that a lot of people go into negotiation the car value with that mindset and your mindset matters a lot when you negotiate. Because the old adage of if everything looks like a nail you use a hammer. 

So I think that that's myth one. Another myth that's really important is that compromise is sort of syngamous with negotiation. That in order to reach some agreement I have to give something up that I really care about.. So the information is the currency of your negotiation. 

And so if you gather more and more car information, that's gonna help you to actually find value. And in negotiation we don't necessarily mean money when we talk about value. 

We mean what it is that matters to people. And there's lots of things that matter to people. And so if I'm being creative and if I'm focused on creatively trying to figure out how do we make this work? And if so how? 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


And Part of That Is: 



What do I really want in this situation? And What does the other person really want? 


And when you're compromising quickly which is what a lot of people do in the car value
negotiation. Especially when things get stuck. 

They don't ever explore what it is that's really important. And I will give you a quick example. So when you're negotiating around a salary for example. People ask me that all the time, how do I do that? And the answer is actually, it may surprise people a little bit which is I say don't think about the money. 

The money will be there and you're gonna discuss the money. But think about what are all the other things that matter to you in this situation? So is there flextime? Can you telecommute? What kind of benefits do they have? Things along those lines. Because those things have a tremendous amount of value to a lot of people. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


The Role of Psychology In Negotiation


I think that the third mistake that I see is that people don't understand the role of psychology in car value negotiation. Psychology is critically important. 

When you're negotiating with somebody, you're negotiating with a human being that's across the table from you. And if you somehow disrespect them, if you present a challenge to their identity or cause them to be embarrassed or lose face. 

All of those are going to destroy a potential agreement. And so you've gotta be in tune to the fact that those intangibles, those things that make us human are part of the process. And you have to pay attention to them. 

I was actually just talking to a colleague the other day about the car value negotiation, that he was involved in. And he took the parties, he was actually meditating and he took the parties to that psychological realm. And it turned out that what the real block was disrespect. It had nothing to do with the dollars and cents that they were arguing over. 

It actually had to do with the fact that one of the parties really felt disrespected by the other. And that happens a lot more than people really think. And much of the time people aren't even considering the psychological realm when they're negotiating. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


What's The Next Step? 


So the next step once you've understood that, you're very far down the road of coming to some agreement or moving forward in the way that you would like. But the next step is actually not to just go with the first car value negotiation idea that comes to mind. 

It's actually to try to engage in a bit of a creative process. To figure out what is the best solution that would meet those interests that you've identified? And that usually takes the form of some kind of brainstorming or something like that.  

It enables you to think about what's possible, and when you start to think about what's possible, lots of things emerge. And the key to this creative process is coming up with sort of creative, wild ideas. Not the you could do it, I could do it or we split the difference. 

But what could we really do if you could think of the absolute best case for you, what would it look like? And you take somewhere there and you say well, I may not be able to do all of that but if we added these things to that, then that becomes more doable. And so it becomes a process of the back and forth. So it's really important that people have a hand in creating the solution. 

There are all kinds of research that suggests if people are actually part of the process of solving a problem, they're much more likely to actually implement it. So the process matters a lot in car value negotiation, not just the outcome. But it's how you get there that is really important. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


What The Term BATNA Is? 


I can, BATNA is a really really important concept when it comes to car value negotiation. So your BATNA stands for your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. And what that simply means, as basic as I can put it is it answers the question of what will happen if I can't reach agreement in this situation? What am I walking away to? 

So if I'm at one car dealer and I'm on a car dealer mile that exists all around the country. If I'm at one place I can go to the next place and see is there a comparable car that perhaps I can get for less. 

Your BATNA is really about what's your alternative if I can't reach an agreement here, And it's really important for comparison purposes and to know whether you should make a deal. Because if you have a good BATNA, there are a bunch of alternatives that are out there, then you don't need to reach an agreement in your current negotiation. You have perfectly viable alternatives elsewhere. And that should give you a lot of confidence. 

You have to always realize that you have a BATNA. It may not be great but then if you invest time just like you might around creative options. 

If you invest some time saying well is there a way that we can make our BATNA better. You often find ways to do that. And sometimes it's building coalitions. Sometimes it's you know things along those lines that can really help you in your car value negotiation. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


How To Being Assertive Without Being Aggressive


Yeah, assertiveness is critical in negotiation. You have to be able to assert what you need. And a lot of people struggle to do that effectively. The best that I've heard it described and the way that I share this is basically when you're asserting for yourself you're standing on your own two feet. When you're aggressive you're standing on someone's else's toes. 

In other words, you're feeling the need to beat the other person up verbally or whatever in order to get where you wanna go. When you're assertive, you don't do that. You just say this is what I need to have in order for this car value negotiation to work for me. 


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


How I Can Find Out What The Car Value Costs


So the first thing about car value costs is back to planning. One of the great things about the Internet is that we now have so much information that we didn't have 20 years ago. So if I'm gonna go buy a Tesla car for example or house, I can look at comparables car value negotiation. 

I can find out what the car costs. So you've gotta do your homework, that's really really important. And when you do your homework what you'll find is that if you were to actually go and meet with a dealer, you have a much better sense of what things cost and what you're willing to pay. 

So when they come back and they say here's the price of the car value negotiation and it doesn't fit with what you've found, then that gives you the ability to say you know I've done some homework here and some research. And here's what I found to be the industry standards. So can you explain to me why it is that your price is $5,000 above that industry standard. What's different about this car, etc


How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro
How to Negotiate the Best Car Price Like A Pro


What Are Some Very Practical Tips for Salary Negotiation


First thing to do is ask yourself why is this so awkward? Why do you feel like it's so uncomfortable? And for some people it's the money. They don't like to talk about salary negotiation or money, they think they're gonna be viewed as greedy. 

But the reality is that we all need to make a living and if we're doing a good job, it's perfectly reasonable to ask for that and start to know how to negotiate salary. But we're back to preparation and we're back to also looking around your environment and saying am I being paid fairly? Again it's a partly psychological problems

A lot of times when people are asking for car value negotiation or a raise, it's because the people that work with them and do the same job as they are making more than them. Which isn't fair.

So there are principles that often make their way in that are valuable to pick up on. So for example if that's the case where you're doing the same work as other people but you're getting paid less, well you could talk about the principle of equality. And that's a way to start the conversation. 

But I would just ask people to reflect and really think why is it that you feel so uncomfortable in that kind of a conversation? Especially if you've had great evaluations, you're doing a good job. You should ask about that. Again, you're back to being assertive and recognizing your value and your worth.