Bargain hunting at Camden market

When I think of the word ‘negotiation’ I instantly link it to the business and working world. Every individual, whether a junior employee, senior employee, manager and so on need to be able negotiate effectively in order to reach a satisfying result for yourself, or your department. In turn, successful negotiation presents a window of opportunities including employee satisfaction and confidence. Negotiation to me literally sums up fighting for a good course; however, it does not always need to be aggressive or even typically business related. Me, being a girly girl decided to explore my individual approach to negotiation using the example of shopping. I recently took a test where my most dominate characteristic and attitude towards conflict was categorised under ‘avoiding’- A very accurate result in my opinion which very much reflects my negotiation style.

A quite recent experience surrounded the art of negotiation. We may not realise it but, negotiation is very much a part of our everyday lives as well as our working life. As a customer I feel we are often tested, therefore negotiation is a vital skill to everyone, the buyer as well as the seller. A couple of months ago, I made my very first visit to Camden market in London. It was an interesting experience, and my negotiation skills were brought to the forefront. Everyone knows, well everyone should know when you go to a market prices are not fixed and depending on how skilful you are at negotiating, market shopping can either be a bargain experience or a rip off.

Negotiation does not require a particular style in order to work. In my experience every individual develops their own unique technique depending on one’s characteristics. For example if a person negotiating a discount price on a bag portrays characteristics of a extrovert and successful gets a good deal, this does not necessarily mean a introvert can’t get that same result. If similar to me your attitude towards conflict is avoiding this does not mean you can’t get things to go your way and my Camden experience was a perfect reflection on this.
My avoiding characteristics showcased in my negotiation technique as I found myself to be very subtle in my approach. Negotiating does not always need to reflect forceful means of communication however it does require a firm direct reassured response. Personally, I found adopting a more suttle negotiating manner in this scenario to be successful as I left feeling like I ‘won’. Another lesson learnt from this experience was you don’t have to always have your eye on reducing the price, as my negotiating approach more than once offered me a deal on items as opposed to unrealistic discounted prices. So the key message in negotiating is ‘think outside the box!’

How do you approach everyday negotiations in similar scenarios? Do you adopt a similar subtle approach to me, or a sterner one? Which do you think works better for you and why?