5 obnoxious negotiation tactics from buyers and how you should respond

5 obnoxious negotiation tactics from buyers and how you should respond

We've all talked with people online or over the phone that try to negotiate with us before and after we give them a quote.  They will always have a price in their own mind that they are comfortable paying, and they will show you that price after you quote them, so you need to know what to say and when to say it in order to convert them into a customer. 

Customers can be obnoxious, and it's usually caused by them not knowing exactly what they're purchasing and how much it should cost.  People get offended when you give them a number that is 10x what they were thinking of paying, and they could actually get angry with you, but you need to respond in a certain way in order to keep them calm and ready to open up their checkbooks

In this discussion, I'll be going over the top 5 obnoxious ways people negotiate and how you should respond.


They will throw temper tantrums
It doesn't matter if you're selling a $5 service or a $500,000 house, people will throw temper tantrums if they aren't getting their way.  You could have a sign all over the service or product saying how much it costs, and the person will have a temper with you when they contact you after purchase, and I'm not exactly sure why this is. 

I started selling a $5 service as a loss leader to get new customers in the door, and people still complain about it because they aren't getting top rankings when the work is done.  I always tell them "This is a $5 service that actually costs us much more than $5 to perform.  It's not designed to get you top rankings for a difficult niche, but we do have packages that can do that for you".  They usually respond with "You never told me I wouldn't be #1 after this was done!" and I always send them to the package page where it says "You likely won't be #1 when this package is completed.  SEO is a never-ending process, so you'll likely need to keep ordering in order to see your rankings improve drastically".  Do you know what they do after that?  They back down and don't talk to me again lol

They will have absurd counter offers
I get this all of the time with my SEO company.  I will quote someone $3,500 a month for their entire SEO campaign each month and they will counter with $500 lol.  I'm not into negotiating with people when it comes to SEO, but I will definitely lower my quote as I take services out of the end results, which will lower their success rates.  For $500 I can get them ranked for 1 or 2 low competition keywords that won't make their money back for 6 months or a year, and they never like that, but this is why I quoted them $3,500

People don't understand how much work and attention you need to put into the details, and they will always low ball you to see what price they can get, so be ready for the ridiculous counter offers and hold your ground.  As soon as you lower your quote or bid, they know you're willing to go lower and they will keep countering.

They will "forget" what they agreed to
The human mind tends to forget things, so you should always have a contract ready if you're doing monthly work for someone or a company.  Have everything covered, in detail, within the contract so you can go back to it if someone complains about what you're doing for them.

If you're doing SEO for a person, and they complain that you're not making custom images for their blog posts, you can always refer back to your contract that never stated you would be doing any sort of graphic design for them.  People overstep their contracts and assume you'll be doing something, so be ready for this and always have that contract on hand for the people who "Forget" what you're supposed to be doing for them

They like to play the bad cop more than the good cop
Not very often will you run into a client who wants to play the good cop more than the bad cop.  Normally, they will start out as the bad cop, never switch over to the good cop, and finish strong as the bad cop.  If you don't know how to respond to these type of people, you'll likely get some bad reviews popping up because they didn't know what they were buying.

The bad cop situation usually pops up after the person has made a purchase, gotten a service done or received a product, and it wasn't what they thought they were buying.  For this reason, I always go into detail and write up exactly what someone is getting with everything I sell.  I can always refer back to the sales page that says what they're getting if they complain, and they always have to agree that they understood what they're purchasing before sending a payment, so they really step back and start showing the Neutral cop

They will use the "One additional thing" tactic
I added this part in the end because it's a biggie, even if the title doesn't make it seem like it is, but you'll always run into the "One more thing" clients when you're sending out contracts. 

Every single time I send out a contract, I will get it back and the customer will agree to everything I've written, but they will add in "I have one more thing" and it's always along the lines of "We've edited the contract" which is something that never benefits me and always makes it so I make less money or get paid in 6 months.  Remember, if you're good at something, never do it for free.  Never accept this type of agreement, unless it benefits you greatly, but that rarely happens so you'll need to reject the revised contract and either cut ties or start over with them.


In conclusion
Customers and clients will always try to negotiate, it's human nature to get the lowest price possible, but it's not always wise to agree with your customers or clients because they don't really know what you have to do for the price you're quoting them.  You need to stand your ground, charge what you think is right, and never really drop your prices if someone can't afford you.  As soon as you charge them less for something, they will come back and always expect a discount, and that's now how successful businesses are run.


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Thanks!

Tommy Carey