Concept
Ackerman Model
The Ackerman model is a bargaining plan in which a buyer sets a target price, opens at 65% of it, raises the offer in three shrinking steps to 85%, 95% and 100%, and ends on a precise, non-round number.
Chris Voss describes the Ackerman model in Never Split the Difference as the method he learned from Mike Ackerman, a kidnap-for-ransom consultant, and used in kidnapping cases. It replaces improvised haggling with a plan made before the conversation. The shrinking steps signal that you are nearing your limit, and a precise final figure such as 37,893 rather than 38,000 looks calculated and therefore firm. Two further rules matter: let the other side counter before each raise, using empathy and calibrated questions rather than bargaining against yourself, and add a small non-monetary item to the final offer to show you have nothing left to give. The same logic can be reversed by a seller.
A real-life example
A buyer in Kocaeli sets 800,000 lira as her target for a used car priced at 900,000. She offers 520,000, waits for the seller to move, then goes to 680,000 and 760,000, asking 'How am I supposed to pay that?' in between. Her final offer is 797,850 lira with the winter tyres included. The seller keeps the tyres and accepts the price.
How to use it
- 1Before bargaining, write down your target and its 65%, 85% and 95% values.
- 2Raise only after the other side has countered, and make each step smaller than the last.
- 3Make the final number precise and non-round, and attach a small non-monetary request.