How to ask

I was surprised to receive several responses to my three-sentence post about reducing my cable bill. Most were along the lines of, "How did you do that?"

A short and simple guide to (this kind of) negotiation:

1. Figure out what concrete actions or results you want, and what a reasonable alternative would be. Come up with both a dream outcome and an outcome that you'd accept as being better than your alternative. Don't limit your dream outcome to what you think is reasonable. You are likely to underestimate. Just think about what you want.

2. Research. Find some objective standard. Revise #1 if necessary.

(For me: I looked at my cable company's website and the competing cable company's website and checked their rates. I decided that my dream outcome would be if my company would give me their promotional rate of $75, and an acceptable outcome would be if they would keep our current rate of $100. Anything more and I'd switch to the competitor.)

3. Rationally explain the situation and directly ask for your desired outcome. Don't be emotional, don't apologize, don't beat around the bush.

4. If you don't get what you want, find different ways to ask.

5. If you get some of what you want, keep asking.

6. Continue asking until you're satisfied.

Did you notice steps #3-6 boil down to "Keep asking"? That's right.

My negotiation went something like this.
Me: "Hi, I got a letter saying that our rate was being increased by $25 a month. I'm calling to ask for a better rate."
Cable Company: "Sorry, you had a promotional rate which goes up after an initial term of 12 months."
Me: "Can you reduce it?"
CC: "Let me see what I can do... I can give you a rate of $120."
Me: "Your website says your promotional rate is $75. Can I get that rate?"
CC: "No, that's for new customers only."
Me: "Do I qualify for any promotions? I'd like to get the rate lower." (At this point if they said no, I would have mentioned that their competitor's rate was $100 a month and asked if they could match that.)
CC: "Well... I can give you a rate of $100 a month."
Me: "Is that the best rate you can give me?"
CC: "If you'll wait on hold, I'll talk to a manager... I can give you a rate of $95 a month, but it will only be good for six months and after that you'll need to call and we'll reevaluate your rate. We can't go any lower than that."
Me: "Great, thanks for your help."

You may not always get what you want, but asking can only help you. It seems scary until you get used to doing it, and then it feels great. Hearing "no" isn't nearly as daunting when you realize how much you can gain with even an occasional "yes."

I've recommended this book before and I'll recommend it again: "Ask for It" by Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever drives this point home and has detailed steps you can take to practice asking for what you want.

I also recently found this fantastic blog, The Daily Asker. Inspired by Babcock's work, the author asked for something every day for a year and chronicled her efforts. Here's one of her summary posts, "88 Things I Discovered."   Gudnuff, if you're still wondering whether these types of skills can be taught, read this blog and wonder no more.