From the course: Management: Top Tips

Avoiding the nibble

From the course: Management: Top Tips

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Avoiding the nibble

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- The final thing to look out for during a negotiation is something called the nibble. And this happens right at the end when you've agreed everything and you think it's finished and suddenly they say, "Oh, by the way, there is an extra cost for delivery," or "Oh, by the way, "you do need to travel a long distance," or something. There's some little extra detail that you hadn't expected that gets thrown in at the end. Now, the nibble could just be something accidental that they'd forgotten, but quite often it's a plan by them to take one more thing afterwards. We've all bought a house and got there and find that they've taken the light bulbs. And that's a nibble, to take the light bulbs. So, the thing about this is you've got to say no to the nibble. So if they suddenly say, "Oh, by the way, there is one more thing," you've got to say, "No, no, we didn't agree to that. "If you want that, you're going to have to pay extra for that." You've got to be able to say no. You've got to be prepared to walk away from the whole deal over that. Now, of course, you won't have to walk away, because if you say, "No, that's it, the whole thing's off," they'll probably say, "Oh, well, all right. "Don't worry about it then." And if they do say, "Oh, well, in that case, "the whole thing's off as well, right, right," then you can say, "Well, look, this is ridiculous. "It's just such a small thing. "Surely we can agree to something on that." So, don't allow the nibble to happen. And the best way to prevent the nibble even starting to happen is to ask about halfway through the negotiation, "Are there any extras that I need to know about?" And if you ask that question and they say, "No, this is everything," then you've got them, and later on they can't suddenly introduce an extra thing at the end. So ask that question during it, are there any extras you need to know about, and then if they do put something else in, you can then say, "No, no, we've agreed the price. "You can't bring something else in now. "Or if you do, I'm going to want to be paid extra for that." Don't let them get away with the nibble.

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