Language, language!

When you’re negotiating with either vendors or estate agents, one of the key negotiation skills is to choose words that hit their ‘hot button’.

If you’ve studied sales you’ll know that there is a process to successful sales transactions.  That same process can be applied to any situation where you want to persuade or influence someone to things your way!

The simplest formula (and it’s been around for a very long time) is AIDA.  This stands for:

Attention:  You can’t sell anything if the other party isn’t paying attention, so that’s the first step - get them to listen to what you’re proposing.  This can be achieved by making eye contact to ensure their attention is with you.

Interest:  Nobody will buy if they’re not interested.  This means you need to know what’s important to this particular person.  What will make them prick up their ears?  Ask the questions to find out before you frame your proposal.  This is sometimes described as ‘what’s in it for me?’ (WIIFM) or as ‘benefits’.

Desire:  This is where to take the interest to the next step to get the other person to imagine what life will be like with whatever you’re talking about in place.  It’s a bit of ‘story-telling’ and it’s important to use the right words to do this.

Action:  This is where most sales fail - the seller doesn’t ask the buyer to do anything.  Don’t forget to get confirmation that the vendor or estate agent is ready to DO something.

What does this mean in action when you’re negotiating to buy a property?

It means choosing the words that really make a difference.  For instance, instead of:

“If we can agree everything, I can complete within 4 weeks.”

You’d say:

“If we can agree everything, you can have the money in your bank account by the end of this month.”

Notice the difference I focus - in the first example it’s all about ‘I’ and in the second it’s about ‘you’.  It’s describing an outcome that you know is important to that person and reaches them emotionally.  Clearly, you may choose different outcomes for different people - and that depends on you asking the right questions to find out what’s important to them.

Remember that the emphasis on the word ‘everything’, allows you to introduce conditions that will make the deal work for you, such as keys on exchange, delayed completion, a lower purchase price, etc.

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