My student’s boss signaled to him that $3.6 million
worked and he agreed to the price.
I’ve teased several of the techniques my student used to
effectively negotiate a great deal for his firm, from the use
of labels and calibrated questions to the probing of
constraints to unearth a beautiful Black Swan. It also
bears noting that my student did tons of work beforehand
and had prepared labels and questions so that he was ready
to jump on the Black Swan when the broker offered it.
Once he knew that the seller was trying to get money out
of this building to pay off mortgages on the
underperforming ones, he knew that timing was important.
Of course, there’s always room for improvement.
Afterward my student told me he wished he hadn’t
lowballed the offer so quickly and instead used the
opportunity to discuss the other properties. He might have
found more investment opportunities within the seller’s
portfolio.
In addition, he could have potentially built more
empathy and teased out more unknown unknowns with
labels or calibrated questions like “What markets are you
finding difficult right now?” Maybe even gotten face time
with the seller directly.
Still, well done!
OVERCOMING FEAR AND LEARNING TO GET
WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE
People generally fear conflict, so they avoid useful