Who should name the price first?
Go first and you set the anchor. Go first and you might give money away.
Sales & negotiation
First offer
Open with your number.
Name your price first and the whole talk circles around it. A bold opening number quietly sets what “reasonable” means for both sides.
- Right when
- When you know what it’s worth and roughly what the other side will pay. A confident first number becomes the point the whole talk moves from.
- For example
- You’re selling your old Activa. Similar ones sell for ₹38,000 to ₹42,000 online. You open at ₹45,000, the buyer counters at ₹38,000, and you settle at ₹42,000. Wait for his number, and the talk might have started at ₹32,000.
- Wrong when
- When you don’t really know the value, and your bold opening turns out to be lower than what they were ready to pay.
Sales & negotiation
Let them go first
Let them open.
Ask what they had in mind before naming your price. Their number might be better than the one you’d have dared to say.
- Right when
- When the other side knows the value better than you, or may value it far more than you’d guess. Their number tells you where the deal can land.
- For example
- Your grandfather’s old Rajdoot has sat in the garage for years. You’d have asked ₹20,000. You ask a vintage collector what he had in mind, and he says ₹60,000. Going first would have cost you ₹40,000.
- Wrong when
- When their opening number is extreme on purpose, and you start bargaining from it instead of from what the thing is worth.
What decides it
Do you know what it’s really worth?
If you know the value and the market, go first: a confident number pulls the deal towards you. If you don’t, let them open, because their number tells you something you didn’t know. Either way, settle your own limit before anyone speaks, so neither number can move it.
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