The Secret Psychology of Successful Negotiators, with Matt Schultz

Afford Anything

Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network

Entrepreneurship, Business, Investing

4.6 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2024

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#562: More than 90 percent of people who ask to get their credit card annual fee reduced are successful. Yet most people never ask. Why? They assume the answer will be no. Matt Schultz, the author of “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More,” joins us to explain the psychology and tactics behind successful negotiation. The key insight: companies want to keep your business. Banks, employers, and service providers invest in long-term relationships because it's more profitable than constantly finding new customers. This gives you more leverage than you might think. For credit cards, Schultz points out that calling the retention department directly (rather than general customer service) often leads to better results. He shares his own experience of getting his $600 annual fee cut in half just by making a yearly call. With mortgage negotiations, Schultz suggests getting quotes from 3-5 lenders on the same day, since rates change frequently. A quarter-point rate reduction on a $360,000 mortgage saves $20,000 over the life of the loan. The fees themselves can differ by $5,000 between lenders. When it comes to workplace negotiations, Schultz recommends keeping a weekly log of your accomplishments. Note both your regular duties and times you went above and beyond. This creates a strong foundation for salary discussions. The most effective negotiations frame requests as win-win scenarios. Instead of just asking for tuition reimbursement, explain how additional education will help you contribute more to the company. Rather than demanding a lower rent, offer to sign a longer lease that reduces the landlord's vacancy risk. Schultz emphasizes building relationships during negotiations. The person at the call center has likely dealt with angry customers all day. Being pleasant and making a human connection can lead to better outcomes. The interview also covers negotiating with family members about money, choosing when to negotiate versus pay full price (like at charity shops or with small businesses), and how to time requests effectively. The common thread: success comes from understanding the other party's interests and finding ways to align them with your own. This episode will show you how to save hundreds — or thousands — in your regular spending, simply by asking. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (0:00 Intro: Most people fear asking for discounts/negotiations (1:37) Keep weekly notes of work accomplishments for better negotiations (3:38) Companies want long-term customers - use this as negotiating leverage (6:04) Credit card fee negotiations - 90% success rate when asking (8:36) How to negotiate mortgage rates and compare lender quotes (13:15) Open-ended questions get better results than yes/no questions (19:41) How to handle pushy mortgage reps who bash competitors (26:41) Tips for millennials who hate phone calls but need to negotiate (31:17) Framing tuition reimbursement as benefit to company (39:19) Building rapport during negotiations vs being aggressive (44:42) When to walk away from difficult negotiations (49:20) Negotiating with small businesses vs large corporations (54:53) Red flags in workplace negotiations (58:38) How companies signal if they value employee growth (1:06:38) Final thoughts on customer lifetime value and negotiating power For more information, visit the show notes at https://affordanything.com/episode562 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sometimes just by asking questions, we can make a lot more money or save a lot more money, but oftentimes we are afraid to ask.
0:09.0	So today we are speaking with Matt Schultz, the author of the book, Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More, on how you can use the power of asking questions to make more money at work or to save more money in the things that you buy in your day-to-day life.
0:28.3	Welcome to the Afford Anything podcast, the show that understands you can afford anything but not everything.
0:34.1	Every choice carries a trade-off.
0:36.4	And that applies not just to your money, but your time,
0:38.8	your focus, your energy, any limited resource. This show covers five pillars. Financial
0:44.7	psychology, increasing your income, investing, real estate, and entrepreneurship. It's double-eye
0:50.6	fire. I'm your host, Paula Pant. I trained in economic reporting at Columbia,
0:55.0	and I help you focus on what matters. Hello, Matt. Hi, thanks for having me. Thank you so much
1:01.6	for being here. Let's start with the primary category where people can really make the most money by
1:07.5	asking for more, and that is at work. Most of the people who are listening
1:12.2	to this right now currently have a job and are not imminently about to switch jobs. Can they make
1:18.3	more money despite the fact that they're not negotiating for a new salary? Yeah, they absolutely can.
1:25.1	The stuff that we're talking about that you need to do isn't really complicated.
1:30.9	It can take a little bit of time, but a lot of it is just about taking notes of what you do on a day-to-day basis.
1:40.0	One of the job experts I talked to was saying that if you, once a week, take the time to note down all the things that you've done during that period, you can kind of build up this laundry list of things that you can then present to your supervisor the next time it comes up for
2:05.2	promotion or if you're just like, I haven't had a job review in two years. It's time I'm bringing
2:11.0	this up. It's really simple stuff like your basic job duties. But then it's also things that you did that you went a
2:20.7	little bit above and beyond on, or you helped out somebody who needed help, or you made some
2:27.6	sort of big sale, or whatever the case might be for your job, making those notes really make a difference because one of the things we
2:37.5	always struggle with when we are kind of hyping ourselves in a promotion and that sort of thing
2:43.8	is we forget what we've done. So just the simple task of making notes can allow you to better understand your own value and kind of
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