Sales Negotiation Tip – Offer the Freedom of Choice

Offer choices.

An interesting and effective technique at persuasion has surfaced recently. It may well have originated as a behavioral technique in dealing with children who balk at parent requests. Certainly it works well at getting youngsters to do what you want…but it also has proven effective in persuading clients to buy.

Here’s how it works…

Give your client the freedom to choose.

It seems counter-intuitive, as if you are backing away from a sale instead of promoting it. The technique works best with phrases that feel and sound like:

• “If you want to, that is” or
  
  
• “But you are free to make your own decision” or
  
  
• “But please don’t feel as if you must.”

The negotiation and influence secret is to give the customer the option to make up their own mind. Apparently, this negotiation skill doubles your chances of a customer saying “yes” as demonstrated in psychological studies of over 22,000 people.
At the very least, it is worth a try to see if it will work in your selling situation. But you are free to make your own decision.