---
title: "Concession Techniques in Negotiation That Salespeople Must Master"
description: "This article outlines four key concession techniques in sales negotiations: gradually decreasing concession amounts, slowing down the pace of concessions, knowing your bottom line, and limiting the number of concessions. These strategies help create the impression that further concessions are difficult, thereby protecting your position."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2014-12-02"
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# Concession Techniques in Negotiation That Salespeople Must Master

> This article outlines four key concession techniques in sales negotiations: gradually decreasing concession amounts, slowing down the pace of concessions, knowing your bottom line, and limiting the number of concessions. These strategies help create the impression that further concessions are difficult, thereby protecting your position.

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**Technique 1: Concession Magnitude**

Take a common example: when buying appliances or furniture, you often encounter a seller who quotes 10,000 yuan, then concedes to 9,000, then 8,500, then 8,200. You can see the concession amounts are 1,000, 500, and 300 yuan, decreasing progressively. This gives the buyer the impression that concessions are getting harder and closer to the limit, and eventually no more can be made. Imagine the reverse: if you first concede 300, then 500, then 1,000, it easily gives the consumer the impression that you are conceding more easily, and in later negotiations, they will think you have more room to give.

To achieve decreasing concessions, you need to determine the first step. Generally, the first concession should be the largest. If you are a store owner with a price bottom line of 2,000 yuan, then the first step should be half, i.e., 1,000 yuan; if you plan to concede 1,000 yuan, the first step should be 500 yuan. This way, subsequent concessions can be smaller.

For example, a restaurant launched a "group discount" promotion: 20 people get 10% off; 30 people get 15% off; 50 people get 17% off. This price gradient is reasonable, giving consumers the feeling that concessions are increasingly difficult. When making concessions, the magnitude should gradually decrease.

**Technique 2: Timing of Concessions**

Besides the magnitude, you also need to control the timing. In negotiations, concessions should be made more slowly over time. That is, the time between the second and third concessions should be longer than between the first and second. As a saying goes: the grinding time gets longer. If you don't manage timing well, the other party may think you are conceding easily, which could increase their expectations and demands.

For instance, in a procurement negotiation for engineering products, the supplier demands a 50% down payment, while the buyer insists on 30%. If the buyer concedes to 35% after two hours of negotiation, then conceding to 38% should take at least more than two hours. This makes the other party feel that further concessions are harder. In the first example of selling appliances and furniture, as a store owner, when you concede 1,000, 500, and 300 yuan, the intervals should also be increasingly longer: the smaller the concession, the longer the time.

Time is a奇妙 thing; it can become pressure on you or on the other party. For example, when negotiating with a retail chain, they ask: "Is 10,000 yuan entry fee acceptable?" Even if you think the price is reasonable and within control, you shouldn't agree immediately. They might say: "Think about it and let us know?" You say: "Okay." If they call you in the afternoon, you know they will likely concede. Perhaps they need your confirmation for the entry fee due to their boss's or company's process requirements. When they call, you tell them the maximum entry fee is 7,000 yuan. They ask: "Can you do 8,000?" What do you do? You shouldn't agree immediately. Cool down, control the timing, and don't answer right away. Wait until the next day to respond, showing that you took a long time to consider, that it was well thought out, and possibly after "internal struggle," and that it's your bottom line.

In negotiation, if you think your time is limited, the other party also thinks theirs is. Therefore, time is a crucial factor that every negotiator must learn to control flexibly and use consciously.

**Technique 3: Bottom Line**

During negotiation, you need to constantly evaluate your results. Can I hold my bottom line? Ask yourself this before negotiation, monitor it in real-time during, and review it after. There was a case where a well-known tile brand held a product procurement conference. Consumers elected a representative to bargain with the brand. Due to poor control of concession magnitude and speed, the company's price bottom line was breached. In the end, selling meant losses, but not selling was also problematic.

If you reach your bottom line during negotiation, here are some methods to help you pace the negotiation and avoid mistakes: First, take appropriate breaks, walk outside the negotiation room, calm your mind, and review whether you got what you wanted and whether you've breached your bottom line. Second, have a colleague act as a monitor, using records and verbal or non-verbal cues to remind the team of our bottom line and what exceeds company requirements. Third, keep records: prepare a notebook to note your commitments and the other party's commitments, then compare them with your pre-set standards and bottom line.

**Technique 4: Number of Concessions**

In business negotiations, how many times should you concede? This is worth studying. Taiwan's famous negotiation expert, Liu Birong, once gave an example: in a sales negotiation, if you concede 200,000 yuan at once, versus conceding 20,000 yuan ten times, the impression is vastly different. Why? For instance, if the seller holds out and finally concedes 200,000 yuan, the buyer might think: "Well, it was hard for him to concede that 200,000, so let's settle at this price." But if you concede 20,000 ten times, others will think you have an 11th, 12th time. So, the number of concessions should generally not exceed three; otherwise, people will think you can concede more. The Chinese saying "things should not be done more than three times" has its logic.

In fact, through many negotiations, I've found that without mastering the rules and techniques of concessions, some negotiation traps are self-dug, and you end up falling into your own pit, losing your bottom line.

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