You will be able to build several equivalent packages and use the response to learn the other side's priorities.
By the second round, Farah and her landlord have been trading one number back and forth for a week. She's at S$2,900, he's at S$3,000, and each message moves the conversation by a few dollars and a little more irritation. It's starting to feel like the tug of war from lesson 1.1.
This lesson gives you a way out of the single-number grind: put two or three complete offers on the table at once, and let the other side choose. All figures are examples.
A package is a complete offer covering several issues at once: rent, lease length, repairs, notice period. Instead of one proposal, you present two or three, each different, and each one you'd be equally happy with.
Farah builds two:
Package A: S$2,950 a month on a one-year lease, with the landlord replacing the old aircon unit before the new lease starts.
Package B: S$2,900 a month on a two-year lease, with Farah arranging and paying for minor repairs under an agreed amount herself.
Package A costs her S$35,400 a year in rent. Package B costs S$34,800, which is S$600 a year less, but she takes on the minor repairs and commits for two years. To her, a working aircon and the freedom to leave after one year are worth about that S$600. So she'd be equally content with either, and that's the test for every package: you should be able to say yes to any of them without regret.
The equal value is what makes this different from a trick. You aren't offering one real option and one decoy. You're offering two genuine choices that suit you equally, so whatever the landlord picks, you're fine.
Packages do something a single offer can't: they make the other side reveal their priorities through what they choose, without your having to ask directly.
If the landlord chooses Package B, he's telling Farah that a two-year commitment and fewer repair calls matter more to him than the extra S$50 a month. If he chooses A, the monthly figure matters more, and he's willing to pay for the aircon to get it.
Either way, Farah learns something she can use, now and in future renewals. And if he rejects both but says, "I'd do B, but at S$2,950," she has learned that the lease length appeals to him and the rent is still the sticking point. Now she can build a third package around that, perhaps S$2,925 on two years, and the negotiation moves forward instead of round in circles.
The same approach works anywhere. Arjun could offer the developer eight videos a month at S$5,700 with 14-day payment, or six videos at S$4,500 with 30-day payment. A job candidate could ask the employer to choose between a higher base salary, or a slightly lower base with a sign-on bonus and an earlier review.
When two sides argue over one number, every gain for one is a loss for the other. There's nowhere for the conversation to go except up and down that single line. When you put packages on the table, the conversation shifts to which combination works best. Different issues can be traded against each other, as lesson 3.2, List the issues and decide what you can trade, set up.
That shift usually makes a deal more likely. People find it easier to choose between options than to concede a number. Choosing feels like a decision they made, while conceding feels like losing. It also tends to produce better deals for both sides, because each party gets more of what it values most.
Presenting packages also changes the tone. Farah's message is no longer "I want less than you want." It's "Here are two ways this could work for both of us. Which suits you better?" That's a much easier message for a landlord to answer politely.
One rule matters above the rest: never put a package on the table that you wouldn't be happy to accept. If Farah offered a third package she secretly hoped he'd refuse, and he picked it, she'd be stuck. Backing out of your own offer damages trust far more than refusing his.
So check each package against your reservation point and your target before you send it. Both of Farah's are below her reservation point of S$3,050, and both give her terms she wants. She sends them together, in one message, with a short line explaining that she's happy with either.
The activity asks you to build two packages for your own negotiation that you'd value about equally, differing on at least two issues.
Build two packages for your negotiation that you value about equally but that differ on at least two issues.
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