You will be able to make conditional concessions that always get something in return.
Farah's landlord has replied to her opening of S$2,800. He says he could come down to S$3,000, and asks whether she can meet him there. She's tempted. It's S$100 more than her target, but below his original S$3,100, and with a newborn at home she'd like the whole thing settled.
If she says "OK, S$3,000," she's made a concession and received nothing for it. This lesson is about why that's a mistake, even when the concession itself is acceptable, and how to make every move earn something. All figures are examples.
The simplest tool in this module is a sentence shape: if you do this, then I can do that. It turns a concession into a trade.
"If you can sign a two-year lease, then I can accept the current rent" is a landlord's version. Farah's might be: "If you can get the aircon properly repaired before the new lease starts, then I can go to S$2,950." Arjun's, for his retainer: "If you can pay within 14 days of each invoice, then I can do S$5,700 a month."
Put the condition first. "If you can..." makes the other side listen for what you want before they hear what you'll give. When the offer comes first, as in "I can go to S$2,950 if you fix the aircon", people tend to hear the number and miss the condition.
The condition should be specific. "If you can be a bit flexible" isn't a condition. "If you can fix the aircon before the new lease starts" is something both sides can see happen or not.
A concession given for nothing has two costs. The obvious one is the concession itself. The hidden one is what it teaches the other side.
When Farah moves from S$2,800 to S$3,000 simply because the landlord asked, he learns that asking works. The natural next step is to ask again, perhaps for her to cover minor repairs, or to accept a shorter notice period. Each easy yes makes the next request more likely.
A conditional concession teaches something different: that she'll move, but only in exchange for something. That slows the other side down. Every request now comes with a cost, so they think harder about which ones are worth making.
This doesn't mean being stingy. Small gestures of goodwill have their place, especially with someone you'll deal with for years. But make them deliberately, and say that's what they are, instead of sliding into them under pressure.
The best if-then offers use the trading currency you found in lesson 3.2, List the issues and decide what you can trade. You give something you scored low, and ask for something you scored high.
Arjun's ranked list showed that fast turnaround in launch weeks costs him little and matters a lot to the developer, while payment within 14 days matters a lot to him and little to them. So his strongest if-then is built from those two: "If you can pay within 14 days, then I can guarantee a three-day turnaround in launch weeks." Both sides end up better off than if they'd simply haggled over the fee.
Farah's equivalent: a longer notice period before she moves out costs her little, since she plans to stay for years anyway, and protects the landlord from a surprise empty month. That's a good thing to offer in exchange for a lower increase.
Somewhere in most negotiations, someone says, "Why don't we just meet in the middle?" It sounds fair, and it's often accepted without thought. Be careful.
Splitting the difference rewards whoever opened more aggressively. With Farah at S$2,800 and the landlord at S$3,100, the middle is S$2,950. If the landlord had opened at S$3,400 instead, the middle would be S$3,100. Nothing about the flat would have changed. Only the opening did, and it moved the midpoint by S$150 a month. This is the same effect lesson 4.4, When they open with an extreme number, warned about.
So when someone proposes the middle, check it against your criteria and your target first. If the midpoint happens to be fair by market data, it may be fine to accept, ideally with something small in return. If it isn't, say so: "I'd rather agree on what's fair for the market than on the halfway point. Listings for similar units run from S$2,750 to S$2,950."
For the activity, you'll go back to the three concessions you planned in lesson 3.3 and rewrite each one as an if-then sentence that names what you'll ask for in return.
Rewrite your three planned concessions as if-then sentences that each ask for something specific in return.
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