“There are more valuable things than money in the short term.” – Ramit Sethi
This episode is a workshop on negotiating. Out of all the resources out there on how to negotiate, 99 percent of them are piss-poor — but I guarantee you this isn’t one of them.
Your teacher in this episode is Ramit Sethi. These lessons are all taken from a multi-day course Ramit taught on CreativeLive.com, which is one of the fastest growing startups. [Full disclosure: I am an advisor.]
If you are an entrepreneur, perhaps just getting into entrepreneurship, thinking of taking the dive into entrepreneurship, or you just want to get out of a trap of your own making, I think you’ll find a lot here. Pay a lot of attention to the exact scripting that Ramit uses. And if a particular section isn’t clicking with you, just skip ahead 20 minutes or so and you’ll find yourself in a new lesson.
In this episode, you will learn about:
- Positioning
- Smart negotiation vs. dumb negotiation
- Overcoming mental barriers related to entrepreneurship
- What you should charge or how you should think about charging for your services
- Mock interviews
- And much, much more
If you only have 5 minutes, listen to this short segment on how to overcome the mindset that limits your ability to sell.
Enjoy!
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
Want to hear another podcast with Ramit Sethi? — In this episode, we dig into the nitty-gritty tools, software, and experiments he’s used to turn a college side project into a multi-million-dollar business with 30+ employees. (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Connect with Ramit Sethi: Website | Twitter
- Ramit Sethi on Persuasion and Turning a Blog Into a Multi-Million-Dollar Business (our first conversation)
- CreativeLive.com
- 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk by Al Ries and Jack Trout (original edition)
- Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
- Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton
- Secrets of Power Negotiating, 15th Anniversary Edition: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator by Roger Dawson
- Breaking the Time Barrier by Mike McDerment and Donald Cowper
- How to Negotiate Lower Car Insurance by Ramit Sethi
- 3 Ready-to-Use Scripts to Save Money and Build Your Career by Ramit Sethi
- Ramit’s 2007 Guide to Kicking Ass
- Clarity Media Group
- Bonuses for blog post readers:
Show Notes
- Optimizing your spending with credit card companies, cable and telephone providers, the gym — you name it. [07:46]
- Ramit’s word-for-word negotiation script (tested with tens of thousands of people and multiple companies). [11:43]
- Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about negotiating. [13:01]
- Mock negotiation (waiving a credit card late fee). [14:50]
- The importance of rapport. [17:28]
- Is rent negotiable? [18:50]
- Negotiating even when you’ve already got the best price in town. [21:21]
- How can you negotiate if you don’t have a perfect track record or the advantage of being a long-time customer? [22:28]
- What to do when clients use your negotiation tactics on you? [23:18]
- Are there gender differences in negotiation? [25:32]
- How to answer the “What are your salary requirements?” question. [28:19]
- The difference between theory and practice in negotiation. [31:21]
- Your credit card was just sold to a new company. How long should you wait to negotiate with the new company? [31:55]
- Can you negotiate insurance? [33:34]
- Can you negotiate with monopolies? [34:32]
- What Ramit learned by videotaping his negotiation style that changed everything. [35:43]
- Why being “too busy” is a good problem for creatives to have. [43:08]
- How to overcome the mindset of “I hate selling myself.” [43:53]
- Understanding the needs of your client base, upping your rate, and justifying it (to yourself) without guilt. [50:25]
- When you’re comfortable with your rates, you can be okay when clients say “No thanks.” [53:54]
- Finding ways to overdeliver. [56:40]
- How do introverts talk business? [57:47]
- How much should you charge? [59:12]
- Should you ever work for free? [1:00:40]
- How to go from one client to many. [1:05:55]
- How do you research what your competitors are charging when many of them don’t discuss it until they’re trying to close a sale? [1:08:10]
- How do you handle price shoppers? [1:10:41]
- For hourly consulting, is it better to price in packages? [1:13:22]
- Do you have to tell a story to convey emotion every time you’re pitching a client? [1:14:52]
- How powerful is a smile? [1:17:35]
- How to answer, “What is your greatest weakness?” [1:20:56]
- Reiterating the importance of storytelling. [1:26:44]
- How to answer the “Among all candidates, why should I choose you?” question. [1:28:13]
- How can you practice? [1:36:14]