Resolved: Be a Smarter Negotiator

This week on the Bucks blog, our contributors, along with some of our favorite sources, are posting about their financial resolutions for the new year. Here, Jennifer Saranow Schultz, the lead blogger for Bucks, shares her plans.

Last year, I wrote about how I wanted to set up a new budget with my husband and to update our bill payment and monthly saving strategies. Now that I’ve somewhat gotten those areas of my financial life under control, my resolution for 2011 is a bit different.

This year, I resolve to be a smarter negotiator after making my fair share of negotiating mistakes. When I was first starting out in the working world, my negotiating behavior was typical of many women, as researchers have found: I just took the starting salary offered as a given and didn’t make any effort to negotiate. More recently, when my husband and I made an offer on a house we really liked, I trusted the Realtor’s advice to start above the asking price. (Luckily, the offer was just a learning experience and we backed out of the deal before it was too late.)

Now, however, I’m armed with tactics I’ve learned in my business school negotiation class, from readings for the class and from my past mistakes. I know now, for instance, to always ask for a better deal since there are often two prices for everything: the price for those who ask and the price for those who don’t.

I also know now to figure out what price I want to pay for something (whether it’s a monthly cable bill or a house) and then offer to pay well below that to ensure that the price ends up close to where I want it (and vice versa if I’m the one offering the service). This may seem obvious to some people, but I find it a really helpful negotiation strategy to keep in mind.

And as my husband and I continue the search for our perfect home, I now know that we should never start the negotiations above the asking price and that we should generally avoid making offers on homes that seem priced to spur bidding wars.

What negotiation tactics and strategies guide your everyday negotiations? How did you learn them?