Summer School 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

How do you get the best deal? How do you know you're getting the best deal? Whether you're talking down the price of a car or talking up your salary, you don't have to be a jerk to get what you want. Negotiations can be win-win – if you know what to ask for and how to grow the pie.

We have three stories in today's episode about how to negotiate tactically. First, a hostage negotiator tries to buy a car. Will he get far? Then, one man's encounter at the airline ticket booth may inform how you respond to your next job offer. Finally, how to avoid a food fight and make a deal that benefits everybody.

We'll learn about something called BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement, which can tell you when to stand firm and when to walk away. We'll find out how to shift our thinking about what success can look like in a negotiation, and shift your counterpart's thinking too.

Come learn the techniques of expert negotiators in the penultimate episode of Planet Money Summer School, MBA edition. Next week: Graduation! So, you have one week to negotiate the cost of your cap and gown.

Our Summer School series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Max Freedman. Our project manager is Julia Carney. This episode was edited by our executive producer, Alex Goldmark, and engineered by James Willetts. The show was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money, from NPR.
0:05.1	Welcome back everyone to Planet Money Summer School, where you are only two lessons away
0:18.3	from getting your totally free MBA.
0:21.8	You get what you pay for.
0:23.3	I'm Robert Smith.
0:24.3	Normally in business school, as you're approaching graduation, you're being heavily
0:28.1	courted by employers like banks and consulting firms, and I'm sure summer school listeners
0:33.6	that Goldman Sachs is already blowing up your LinkedIn.
0:37.5	Maybe McKinsey is power pointing in your direction, but friends do not accept their
0:42.1	first offers.
0:43.1	No matter how good they look, because today's lesson is about negotiations.
0:48.8	You know, the old give and take, back and forth, haggle time.
0:53.3	Whether you're selling your company, boosting your salary, or figuring out who will do the
0:57.3	dishes tonight, life is one negotiation after another.
1:02.0	By the end of this show, you'll have all the tools not just to get what you want, but
1:06.3	perhaps make everyone better off.
1:11.4	Usually you invite one professor onto summer school to help lead the class, but how's
1:15.5	this for negotiating?
1:16.5	I'm going to throw in an extra professor for free, two for the price of one, both from
1:22.0	Columbia Business School.
1:24.1	We have Daniel Ames.
1:25.1	Hello.
	...

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