Negotiating a price on a car can be awkward and stressful. Roger Dawson, a premier business negotiator and author of “The Secrets of Power Negotiating”, offers some tips before stepping on to the car lot.

Here is some advice:

1) “Take the emotion out of it,” says Dawson, “If the salesperson thinks that you’ve fallen in love with the car, you lose.”
Try this approach: “This is for use a company car so we only care about getting the best deal. We’ve narrowed it down to a Chevy, a Ford and a Toyota. Either one of those will work for us.” 

2) Don’t be fooled by the so-called invoice price. Dealers will happily sell you cars at 5% below invoice because of the credits they get back from the factory. “I once negotiated a Chevy with a TV producer using a hidden camera and got it for 7% below invoice,” says Dawson. 

3) Power in a negotiation comes from convincing the other side that you have options. Let them know that you already have another car picked out and just want to know if they could beat the price by enough to make it worthwhile. 

4) Do your homework. If you were going on vacation, you’re be willing to spend a few hours researching your options, wouldn’t you? Take the same approach when you investing a new car and see what a great return on investment you get for the time you spend. 

5) Realize that you are out gunned. You buy a new car every 3 or 4 years. The salesperson negotiates two or three times a day. Study up on negotiating skills because as Roger Dawson says, “You will never make money fast that you will when you’re negotiating. I don’t care if you do brain surgery in your spare time you’ll still make more per hour when you’re negotiating than anything else you can do.” 

The Secrets of Power Negotiating covers every aspect of the negotiating process with practical, proven advice, from beginning steps to critical final moves: how to recognize unethical tactics, why money is not as important as everyone thinks, negotiating pressure points, understanding the other party and gaining the upper hand.  

Roger Dawson has trained managers and salespeople at the top companies and business associations throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Taiwan, China, New Zealand and Australia. He was inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame in 1991. Roger is the author of “Secrets of Power Negotiating” and founder of the Power Negotiating Institute. He is full time speaker and author and travels around the world giving seminars to corporations and associations. His audio program “Secrets of Power Negotiating” has sold over 548 thousand copies and is the best selling business audio program ever published.