How to barter or negotiate using psychology

Want to know how salesmen manipulate you using psychology and how you can turn the table? Bartering is a skill that is not only critical in a SHTF or even TEOTWAWKI scenario, it can help you today. If you learn how to barter (negotiate) now, you’ll not only be better off if the economy collapses or you find yourself in a third-world country, you’ll be able to live more comfortably today with no increase in income. This is the real meaning of the famous quote:

A penny saved is a penny earned

It really bugs the crap out of me when I see that quote used with regards to saving money in a bank, as in stashing it away. That doesn’t even make sense. What it’s saying is that if you have $100 and you buy something for $50 that normally costs $75, then you’ve essentially earned $25 because you can spend it elsewhere.

Bartering is essentially negotiating a deal with something other than common currency so if you learn how to negotiate, you can easily transfer those skills to taking something in exchange for trade. It’s just the specific terms of the negotiation that are a bit more variable when bartering.

I’ve spent a LOT of years learning and practicing psychology with regards to building rapport and getting others to want to do what you need them to do. It also helps that I used to sell cars many, many years ago. Because of this, and because it’s a real-life skill that you can relate to, I’ll use how to buy a car as an example. Plus, you might really want to know how to buy a car and get the best price for it, so this might save you some money in the transaction.

Bartering and negotiating are all about value. It’s not only the value of the goods or services that affect the negotiation, it’s the human value that each party places on the relationship they have with the other person. This is what we’re going to learn about today.

Value is a perception

This is a very fundamental concept that you should get. If someone handed you $100, would that make you happy? What if that $100 were your paycheck for the month because they spent your money elsewhere (like on universal healthcare)? Now you’re not so happy. Why? It’s the same $100 the same person handed to  you. It’s  because of the perception of what that $100 represents and how you see that it will affect you. It’s the intangable value that you see to that $100 and what the money represents to you that’s different.

To negotiate the best price for a car or barter to leverage your goods or services in the most effective way, you need to somehow get across that your goods / services are more valuable to them than what they are offering. This is also true. No one will ever buy anything, anywhere unless they believe this. What  you need to do is leverage this to your benefit. To do that, you need to use psychology.

Negotiation is a power struggle

In the relationship between two individuals who are negotiating, there is always a power struggle. If you have more power than the other person, the part of the negotiating that is due to the value of your relationship will be controlled by you. Let me explain.

If you are negotiating with someone that you are really attracted to or someone you really admire, you’ll cave in much quicker than if you’re negotiating with someone that you don’t like. Why? Because they have more power over you. You care about how they feel regarding the terms of the negotiation. You’ll let this feeling affect the price of what you’ll pay or the amount of goods / services you’ll trade in exchange for what they have. Think girls have to pay more for a car than guys? Wear a sexy outfit to a car lot next time; you’ll see a difference.

Basically, what you will pay for something by bartering what you have or can do is affected by the following:

• What it cost you to get it
• What it would cost you to replace it
• How badly you need what they have
• How much control you have in the relationship
• How much you think they value what you’re trading
• Your communication skills
• What they paid to get what they have
• How badly they need what you have
• How much they think you value what you’re trading
• What it would cost them to replace what they have

They are sitting where you are, just on the other side of the table. Their perceived value is similar regarding what they have to trade.

You can’t do much with regard to what you paid for what  you have, because you already have it. Also, what it would cost to replace it isn’t something we can control at the moment (unless you used this psychology to buy what you’re now trading away). We need to focus on what you can control and what you can learn to do, especially using psychology, because that’s what I felt like writing about today. This is what we’re gonna focus on today:

• How much control you have in the relationship
• How much they think you value what you’re trading
• How badly they need what you have

As we said, you need to control the relationship between you and the other person you’re trying to buy or sell from. To do this, you need to do what the Pick-Up community calls, Displaying Higher Value (DHV). Essentially, this means you need to figure out what they respect, admire, or want from another person and show that you have those qualities.

You need to build rapport to negotiate the best price

The easiest way to do this is to build rapport. Make friends with the guy. Ever had a garage sale and some dude walked up and complained rudely that your prices were too high? How’d that work out for his prices? Did you drop your price for him as far as you could have? Probably not. Personally, I would have told the guy something on the order of, “Oh, actually, the prices listed are for my friends. I made the math easy for people like you though, just double what you see for what you can pay.”

On the other hand, if I had a cute college girl that came up to my yard and in our discussion about life and the universe, she happened to casually mention that she may be able to come over this weekend to hang out in my hot tub with a few of her girlfriends, my price is gonna drop faster than a flasher’s pants.

A car salesman is going to take you out on a test drive. He’s not only going to do this to see if the car will work for you (he doesn’t really care about that as long as you buy it) or to prequalify your financial situation to see if he’s wasting his time, he’s trying to get you to fall in love with the car and to fall in love with him. He’s gonna ask about your cats, your family, your job, all that stuff. A good salesman will make this all seem smooth. What he’s doing is called elicitation. He’s also building rapport that will be used later.

You need to do the same thing. Don’t get so wrapped up in the car. They make them every day. You don’t need this one. What you need is to make sure the car is what you need and then work the salesman.

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