Negotiating is a dance of give-and-take. It can also be viewed a bit of a cross between chess (cold hard strategy) and poker (body-language cues, bluffs). If both parties are skilled in the art, they will come to the table with opening positions they do not realistically hope to maintain. It is from those opposing positions that the parties do their dance to some agreeable middle ground.

Some web “experts” tell you to pick your price and present it to the salesperson as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. And there is nothing wrong with that strategy. BUT…

What if your offer is far, far below the price they could reasonably match? The answer is simple. You will be sent away. No salesperson is going to waste his/her time quibbling on a lowball price presented by a clearly-stubborn prospect. The reason for this? Simple. Within a short time, another prospect, must less stubborn, and willing to sincerly negotiate will walk through the door. If the salesperson is tied up dealing with you, that profitable prospect will fall into another salesperson’s hands.

What if your offer is ABOVE the price the salesperson was reasonably willing drop to? No-brainer. You just gave up hundreds of your dollars – and you didn’t have to! That is why a good negotiator will always present the intial offer in a purely non-committal way. That way, the offer can be rescinded and revised to a lower figure. How do you exercise this technique? It’s really quite simple, and a strategy that is employed by Fortune-500 companies (and country diplomats) all the time. You will find this procedure, in detail, in my eBook, “Outfox the Car Dealer” (just Google it).

Now let’s discuss that hype of buying a car at cost. Can it be done? Short answer: “YES.” BUT. (And you knew there had to be a “but”) #1. It won’t be the car you dream of. Give up any thought of getting a shiney new 2011 BMW for cost. However, if you’re willing to take a gas-guzzling 4×4… well, you might be in luck. After all, many dealers picked up these behemoths at top-dollar value at auction just before gas prices went sky high. Values of those vehicles plummeted overnight. Dealers would have been very happy to unload those dogs at cost. The car you get at cost will NOT be a desirable vehicle. You can count on it. And, point #2… you may have to wait quite some time and do a lot of leg work to find a car at cost. That should be obvious.

There are a lot of tricks the car salesperson has learn after enduring 80 hours of training. They emerge as skilled persuaders, negotiators, and manipulators. The training teaches them how to begin to take control of you the instant you step on the lot. From there, they exercise all sorts of pschological ploys to keep you on the lot, get you excited in a car, and run you through a sales pitch to the bottom line.

Learn how you can negotiate with car dealers – and win – by reading my 140 page eBook, “Outfox the Car Dealer.”