Concept
Concessions
A concession is anything you give up in a negotiation, and the discipline around it is simple: concede slowly, in shrinking steps, and never without receiving something in return.
Fisher and Ury's Getting to Yes warns against the concession spiral of positional bargaining, where each side gives ground grudgingly until a midpoint nobody wanted; Chris Voss adds the mechanics that make a concession worth something. Size sends a signal: a large first concession says there is more to come, a shrinking sequence says you are near your limit. Speed sends one too: a fast yes to a discount teaches the other side that pushing works. And an unreciprocated concession is a gift that gets forgotten. What people get wrong is giving to be liked or to end the discomfort. A concession should be visible, valued and traded, or it should not be made.
A real-life example
A landlord asks for a twelve percent increase. The tenant offers four, then six, then seven, each step smaller and each tied to something: a two-year term, then repairs done at her cost. The landlord reads the shrinking steps as a real limit and settles at seven, and both have got something they can name.
How to use it
- 1Decide your concession sequence in advance, each step smaller than the last.
- 2Never concede fast; a pause before a yes is worth money.
- 3Attach every concession to a request: 'I can move on that if you can move on this.'