[Marketing Mantra] Be it a Beer or a Babe... Just Bargain…!!!

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Mar 7, 2011, 12:50:49 AM3/7/11

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Well readers, it’s been more than 2 months for me here in Hyderabad as a migrant for employment and I’m quite happily enjoying my life day-in and day-out. All these days I learnt certain good things both in my professional and personal life. The one best lesson I learnt is the subject of this article that is “Bargaining”, to be very frank with you all I’m a kind of buyer who readily pays-off how much ever the seller asks for without any hesitation for any kind of product that I decide to buy but recently I realized that I can make huge saving when we intend to negotiate for the price offered to some extent for each and every product/service we buy.

Here I would like to introduce you all with a real life character who is bit close to me right now as he is my roommate and who made me to understand that Bargaining in any type of market will really works out. He is Mr. Balaji, a 24 years old youngster from the city of Bangalore and a well experienced person in-term of bargaining. In-fact, I was quite uncomfortable with him in the earlier days when I found him bargaining for everything, but he really saved so much money when we were in a process of finding a rented home and followed by the purchases we did for the household. While, freezing the home for rent we saved Rs. 1000/- as rent from the land lord which is a huge saving when considered in long-term and Rs. 750/- from the agent who referred us the home.

We went for buying all the simple household items including buckets, baskets, floor mats, utensils, hangers and etc, Balaji’s brilliant bargaining helped us to save around Rs. 600/- in total. We thought of purchasing an induction stove and now I gave this entire responsibility to Bala, we found a dealer for white goods and finalized a branded induction stove, the shop keeper offered a price of Rs. 2500/- we billed it for Rs. 2000/- flat 20% saved. Balaji’s successful bargaining continued even in a fully Air-Conditioned jewelry shop, when one of our colleague intended to purchase a original pearl set, the tagged price for a pearl necklace, ear stud and a pair of bangles is Rs. 2700/-, we paid Rs. 1800/-.

The moral is very simple, the sellers always keep a negotiation bandwidth for the products or services they sell, it is our talent behind in exploiting that bandwidth hidden with the initial price offered. Here are some tips on how to make a successful bargaining.

· Break the ice within you and just start to ask for a reduced price. Bargaining is not a sin.
· If the seller is a retailer then start with a minimum of 30% discount and you will end up with a 15% of reduced price
· If the seller is a dealer or distributor it is for sure that you can win a 20% to 30% of price that is offered and if he is a main manufacturer who is directly selling the product or service then you can earn somewhere around 30% to 40% of the price depending on the volume you purchase and kind of product he sells.
· For consumer products, including personal care, health care, groceries, vegetables and other FMCG product purchase prefer a typical Kirana store where you can get the same product at a rate less than the MRP printed on the SKU and not in a super market or at a chain retail brand. In most of cases, organized retailers bill the exact MRP and yes they offer discounts but very rarely when they want to throw out their old stocks.
· Use any historic data that you have in your mind stored during your previous purchase and throw those figures to the seller that makes him to realize that you are knowledgeable about the market price.
· Figure-out an approximate cost that could have incurred for making the product keep a 20% to 30% extra and that would be the price for most of the products.
· Do not intend to bargain in a store which adopts electronic billing using barcode technology but you can comfortably start bargaining in any store where hand-written or printed tags are available on the product. It is irrespective to the value of the product.
· Do not go beyond a certain limit for bargaining that would seriously irritate the seller.
· Start to bargain only if you are really interested to purchase that particular product when you get the same at better price else don’t do, just ask the price for your knowledge and move away.
· Just start the negotiation in a friendlier manner with the vendor; they are also a yet another human beings like you and me. Shopping and purchasing is all fun and try to start enjoying your moments with different kind of sellers available in the market, each and everyone are different.

And yes, if you try following these above tips one day you definitely bargain each and everything in the market place. Be it a Beer or a Babe... Just Bargain…!!!

This article is completely based on the experience I earned in the market and you can definitely share your valuable experience right here which would enrich the content.