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How the law of scarcity gets you the best deal


The book influence by Robert B. Cialdini, PH.D. has become an international bestseller. This book on persuasion explains why people say ‘yes’ and how to apply this knowledge. He discusses six common principles which he also calls mental short cuts as we rely on mental short cuts every time we are faced with a decision. He explains how to use these principles, how to become a skilled persuader and how to defend yourself from them.

In this post we will discuss the fourth principle –Scarcity – the rule of the few
When something becomes scarce then the opportunity or item becomes more valuable. Imagine you are having a face to face discussion with someone and suddenly your phone rings. You now have the choice to not answer the call and continue with the conversation or to interrupt the conversation and answer the call. If the caller is someone who is hard to get and this is your chance to speak to the caller then you will most likely interrupt the face to face conversation and pick up the phone. While the ongoing conversation might be interesting and engaging you might miss the call which could be your one of the very few opportunities to speak with the caller. Therefore, the chance of you picking up the call is greater than ignoring it. That is because potential losses, especially of scarce opportunities, play a large role in human motivation. This loss aversion suggests that the thought of losing something motivates a reaction more likely than the thought of gaining something of equal value.
Perceived scarcity of things decides over their assigned worth with the “limited-number” tactic putting this principle into use.
We are all subjected to this with slogans like ‘only 5 left at this price’ or ‘for a limited time only’. The aim of this tactic is of course to increase the value of something that is being sold.
This tactic influences human action. Perceived scarcity increases cognitive shortcuts. We judge the quality of something over its availability. If something is hard to obtain it is perceived to be better than something that is to be obtained more easily.
Secondly, when opportunities become less available, we feel that we lose control over the situation.  According to the reactance theory by Jack Brehm, whenever our freedom of choice is threatened, our desire to obtain something is bigger than before.

When you negotiate with someone make sure you always make something hard to obtain.  Never give something away easily as the other party won’t value it as much and will ask you for more. Always concede with reluctance even if it might be easy for you to give away.
Make the other party work hard for your concessions and they will value it and believe that they have gotten the best deal possible even though you got the better deal.

www.octalonegotiation.com

#influence #negotiationskills #negotiation 

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