Salaries and Deals

Anchoring reaches far beyond retail. In salary negotiations, whoever names the first number controls the conversation. A recruiter offering $80k pulls you toward negotiating between $75k and $95k; opening with $110k resets the range. Final offers tend to cluster around the first figure that gets named.

Even jury awards can drift toward the damages a plaintiff suggests, despite instructions to ignore that figure. Negotiators use this with the range strategy: offering "$80k to $100k" rather than "$90k" pulls the result toward the high end. Decide the number you want before the other side speaks, and name it first when you can.