1. Stay in control. Whenever you are selling something, you need to stay in control while negotiating. Don’t be pressured or manipulated into selling for less than you wanted! Some buyers will try and pressure you into making a quick decision or else they will “walk.” Remember, even if the potential buyer does start to walk away you can still “holler” (call out!) to them to come back and accept the last price they offered you! Do not come across that you are desperate to sell though: buyers will pick up on that like a lion after an injured gazelle! Remember there are plenty more buyers out there. You don’t have to sell today.
2. Be slow to move on price. Too many times people will accept the first offer that is made for an item, especially if they’ve have had it around for a while! Always know that you can counter an offer. In fact, you can counter a counter offer! I’ve countered offers several times, and it’s always worth it to try. Remember you can move in small monetary increments. The potential buyer can increase his offer on your item $1,000 at a time and you can counter, as the seller, $100 at a time! It will be obvious what’s happening here, and will probably induce a moment of laughter as you counter offer with such small increments. That’s fine! The fact remains that you’re countering the potential buyer’s offer. So often this can lead to a sale where you haven’t lowered your price significantly even though the buyer’s offer was low to start with.
3. Sell the sale. Once you are at the point of negotiating the price of your item, you need to move on from selling the item, to selling the “sale” or the final transaction. At this stage your potential buyer has made up their mind that they want what you’re selling and now it is down to price. If you have had lots of interest in a particular item, communicate this with the potential purchaser. Tell them you’ve had other potential buyers contact you! Remind them that once they buy your item they can quit wasting time investigating other options.
4. Don’t think about negotiating! Start from the assumption that you have priced your item correctly and any potential buyer will pay the “very reasonable” asking price. If you communicate how well you have priced the item, and don’t even hint at negotiating, the chances of a buyer paying the full asking price goes way up. When you price an item competitively, your goal should be to achieve that fair asking price.
5. Lay out clear expectations before agreeing on the deal. This is the your responsibility as the seller. If you’ve decided to accept their offer, whether discounted or full price, go over the details before you agree. For example: “Ok, so if I accept your offer, you are able to leave a $500 cash deposit now and you’ll be back to pick it up tomorrow?”  This not only clarifies all details to both parties involved, but also makes sure the potential buyer is serious and is able to follow through on their offer. Once the offer is accepted, shake hands to seal the deal and, depending on the size and nature of the purchase, get the details in writing. Now both parties are 100% committed to the terms they’ve mutually agreed on and there should not be any further negotiations from either party after this step.

Hopefully these tips will help you negotiate strongly! Share a personal story about negotiation in the comment section. See you next time!