Something I learned at a very early stage of my sales career is called the doorknob close. Be prepared to walk away – and just before you do, pause as you walk out the door to tell them you aren’t coming back. It works.

As far as a pair of shoes or a car seat at Babies R Us – why not? How about asking if they can sell them for any less?

Something else I learned long ago is this – “If You Don’t Ask, Then You Don’t Know.”

Next time you go to a hotel, try asking for a courtesy upgrade to a bigger and nicer room. The worst thing they can say is no. Same thing applies to shoes, clothing, car seats, etc. Ask them if they can give you a better price – and be prepared to walk and let them know it. It works!!

One other thing. Most salespeople or sales clerks won’t know how to act when you ask for the discount, so the answer will most likely always be a no. Ask them to get their manager and things change dramatically.

[...] Last week was week 8 in Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University“. Week 8 was all strategies for negotiating, and using cash to reduce the cost of the items you buy. [...]

I’ve haggled on cars & furntiture before, because that seems acceptable and expected. But can you go into Babies R Us and haggle over a car seat? Or to a sporting goods store for a pair of shoes?

I tried haggling with a guy at Radio Shack over an older generation iPod nano once and he wouldn’t come down on price. Even though I could buy it on radioshack.com for the price I was willing to pay him. I ended up buying a refurb off apple.com for even cheaper and it has worked perfectly.

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