If you ever tried to book a flight or a hotel room, I am sure you have seen how you are first offered a low price, and when you try to book it ,you end up with a lot of extras you have to pay for in the end.
Most offers we see both in the consumer market or in b2b are moving toward lowering price by excluding vital parts or shifting volume or function, a response we have to live with when most offers still mostly focus on price.
In some cases we also see that service providers offer solutions that not only would not work without these extras, but also force you into making sure you got the full picture, before committing to anything.
In some cases, if they can not make you commit to a higher price, they try to make you commit to a longer timeline and try to charge you extras over time due to that you can not brake the timeline you committed to.
It is not uncommon to see terms that states if you make any changes during the contract time you committed to, it will cost you dearly, in some branches this is mandatory and common praxis.
I can not name a branch or a service that will not use time, volume or extras in the future to charge you for whatever they see as an opportunity to put extra costs on top, can you ?
In the future I am sure of one thing, if you ever want whatever you are buying to work, you have to pay extra for it, especially if you want it to work for more than 2 years, for example insurances are a way of charging extras in this situation.
As a buyer or seller today you have to have the skills in how to get around these kind of build ups, you have to know how to build them up or dismantle them, if you don´t there is a big risk you will end up with the short end of a long stick.
As a consumer it is more difficult, especially if you are buying online, or worse arguing with a AI robot that has the patience to wear you down or that doesn´t give you the possibility to have a go at lowering the price.
If you are representing a company as a buyer or a seller, I am sure you do not accept the price you are given over an email or online, or, maybe you are, because it is too much of a hassle and to time consuming to get what you are looking for.
A lot of people are complaining that shops are closing down and everything is moving online instead, well if you are not supporting your local shop, do not complain, in the end it is what the buyers and seller have chosen to do due to costs and demand etc.
Did you know that there is an app that you can download that is supposed to waste time when ever you are confronted with a cold call company or call center by starting an endless argument with the caller?
In the future we can expect two AI robot getting in to an endless argument that will not lead to anything productive for anyone, it could actually be a fun program to watch in some cases.
It would be like when lawyers try to control your answers in court by asking a lot of yes or no questions that are supposed to force you to answer what they would like to hear, you can listen to some of the funniest ones online.
It it quite clear that whatever smart tricks that are developed around the world , there will be a counter measure invented somewhere else in due time.
Personally I am waiting, not for a better fire wall in my computer , but for a super aggressive counter measure that will attack any intruders online that try to do harm to my computer, it would be like having a vicious dog at home if any intruders try to enter.
It would be like a new sign saying “this computer is protected by a aggressive firewall, interact on your own risk ”
It is quite interesting to think that natures evolution, will move in to an AI evolution without any certain end, its like an online game that just tries to keep you playing an infinite game for ever.
Have you ever been in an argument with someone totally unreasonable or just plain stupid , how did that feel, well one thing is certain, this will become more common, and is quite common already from a lot of gate keepers och info gatherers that you meet.
If you meet these kind of obstacles you can be certain it is a strategy, in some cases to block or just wear you down in such away that you surrender whatever information they are looking for, or making sure you commit to whatever price they are offering.
Well you can always go somewhere else and find another supplier or buyer, sure you can, but then you have to start over again and hope you do not meet the same kind of behavior again.
Instead of running around with different offers and trying to force a better price or service in to place, why not try to negotiate instead of fighting your price or offer.
In the end the solution is simple if you know what to do and ask for, but if I could give you a simple advice next time you are buying or selling, then it would be to join a negotiation course, not necessarily one of ours if you are just looking for a low price.
If we would use the same add on tactics when we sell our courses, then you would probably only end up with half the course and with a toolbox that you have to buy extra for over time, and after 2 -3 years you would have the full picture on how to negotiate.
We have more than a bunch of teaching points on our course, why not pay for each one of them, we can offer you a cluster of them, but then you would just end up without the ones you need and probably have to buy extra to get them, sound familiar?
It is like when you buy TV packets, half the channels you get are the ones you can live without.
Most companies that try to negotiate our price, have not tested us before, I always tell them to wait with trying to negotiate our price down to after they have participated on one of our courses, so they know what they are buying and what value they get.
The interesting thing is that not everything is negotiable, and when you start making it clear to you clients that there is a cost to everything, then your every day business will become much easier than before.
Remember there is always someone else out there cheaper than you, always, but there is a reason why your customer is coming to you, why not ask them next time, why they are asking you even though they have a lower price from someone else?
Obviously you have something else of value worth arguing about, if not, keep moving, there are other clients that values your skills, especially if you add on some of our skills to your own.
Best regards
Christopher Bell Blomquist
Consultant at Bellblomquist Consulting.
Lead Tutor at Scotwork Scandinavia Sweden.
www.bellblomquist.com www.scotwork.se www.scotwork.dk
www.scotwork.no www.scotwork.com
