Pause After Your Counterpart Makes an Offer

Your counterpart made a generous offer that you don’t want to counter. At this moment, pause for a few seconds before accepting.

Your silence will make them uncomfortable — and they might preemptively enhance their offer before you answer:

• Them: How is $85,000 for the salary?
• You: [pause for 5 seconds]
• Them: We could go up to $90,000.

If they interject, then great. If not, then accept or counter. Either way, your silence was simply a moment to ponder the offer.

If anything, immediate concessions can be harmful. Counterparts feel regretful, as if they are overvaluing your offer:

...concessions, especially immediate ones, will be interpreted as signaling a defective or overpriced object that the other party is trying to unload rather than a conciliatory move designed to aid the focal negotiator. (Kwon & Weingart, 2005, p. 4).

• Kwon, S., & Weingart, L. R. (2008). Social motive expectations and the concession timing effect. In IACM 21st Annual Conference Paper.