One of the most frustrating situations you can run into is trying to negotiate with the person who claims that they don’t have the authority to make a final decision.

Unless you realize that this is simply a negotiating tactic that’s being used on you, you have the feeling that you’ll never get to talk to the real decision-maker.
When the other person says to you that they must take it to the committee, or the legal department, it’s probably not true, but it is a very effective negotiating tactic that they’re using on you.

Fortunately, Good Negotiators know how to handle this challenge smoothly and effectively.
Your first approach should be trying to remove the other person’s resort to higher authority before the negotiations even start, by getting them to admit that they could decide if the proposal was irresistible.

One of the most frustrating things that you encounter is taking your proposal to the other person and having them say to you, “Well, that’s fine.

Thanks for bringing me the proposal. I’ll talk to our committee about it and if it interests us we’ll get back to you.”

Where do you go from there?

If you’re smart enough to counter the Higher Authority Gambit before you start, you can remove yourself from that dangerous situation.

So before you present your proposal to the other person, before you even get it out of your briefcase, you should casually say, “Let me be sure I understand. If this proposal meets all your needs is there any reason why you wouldn’t give me a decision today?”
It’s a harmless thing for the other person to agree to because the other person is thinking, “If it meets all of my needs?

No problem, there’s loads of wriggle room there.”

However, look at what you’ve accomplished if you can get them to respond with, “Well, sure if it meets all of my needs, I’ll give you an okay right now.” Look at what you’ve accomplished:

1. You’ve eliminated their right to tell you that they want to want to think it over.

If they say that, you say, “Well, let me go over it one more time.

There must be something I didn’t cover clearly enough because you did indicate to me earlier that you were willing to make a decision today.”

2. You’ve eliminated their right to refer it to a higher authority.

You’ve eliminated their right to say, “I want our legal department to see it, or the purchasing committee to take a look at it.”

What if you’re not able to remove their resort to higher authority?

I’m sure that many times you’ll say, “If this proposal meets all of your needs is there any reason why you wouldn’t give me a decision today?”

and the other person will reply, “I’m sorry, but on a project of this size, everything has to get approved by the specifications committee.

I’ll have to refer it to them for a final decision.”

Here are the three steps that Power Negotiators take when they’re not able to remove the other side’s resort to higher authority:

Step number one-appeal to their ego.

With a smile on your face you say, “But they always follow your recommendations, don’t they?”

With some personality styles that’s enough of an appeal to his ego, that he’ll say, “Well, I guess you’re right.

If I like it, then you can count on it.”

But often they’ll still say, “Yes, they usually follow my recommendations but I can’t give you a decision until I’ve taken it to the committee.”

If you realize that you’re dealing with egotistical people, try pre-empting their resort to higher authority early in your presentation, by saying, “Do you think that if you took this to your supervisor, she’d approve it?”

Often an ego-driven person will make the mistake of proudly telling you that he doesn’t have to get any body’s approval.

The second step is to get their commitment that they’ll take it to the committee with a positive recommendation.

So you say, “But you will recommend it to them-won’t you?”

There are only two things that can happen at this point.

 Either she’ll say, yes, she will recommend it to them, or she’ll say, no she won’t-because . . .

 Either way you’ve won.

Hopefully, you’ll get a response similar to,

“Yes, it looks good to me, I’ll go to bat for you with them.”

But if that doesn’t happen, and instead they tell you that they won’t recommend it because, you’re still ahead, because any time you can draw out an objection you should say, “Hallelujah” because objections are buying signals.

 For example, nobody will object to your price unless buying from you interests them. If buying from you doesn’t interest them, they don’t care how high you price your product or service.
 

Objections are buying signals.

Your biggest problem is not an objection, it’s indifference.

Indifference is your problem, not objections.
Indifference is your problem, not objections.

Objections are buying signals.
So when you say to them, “You will recommend it to them, won’t you?” they can either say, yes they will, or no they won’t.

Either way you’ve won.

Then you can move to step three:

Step Three: The qualified “subject to” close; it doesn’t sound as though you’re making as important a decision as you really are.
Let’s just write up the paperwork ‘subject to’ the right of your legal department to reject the proposal within a 24-hour period for any legal reason.”

Notice that you’re not saying subject to their acceptance.

You’re saying subject to their right to decline it for a specific reason.

If they were going to refer it to an attorney, it would be a legal reason.

If they were going to refer it to their accounts dept, it would be a tax reason and so on.

But try to get it nailed down to a specific reason.

So the three steps to take if you’re not able to get the other person to waive his or her resort to higher authority are:

1. Appeal to the other person’s ego.

2. Get the other person’s commitment that they’ll recommend it to the higher authority.

3. Use the qualified subject-to close.

Being able to use and handle the resort to higher authority is critical to you when you’re Power Negotiating.

Always maintain your own resort to higher authority and always try to remove the other person’s resort to a higher authority.

• Key points to remember:
  Attempt to get the other person to admit that they could approve your proposal if it meets all of their needs. If that fails, go through the three counter gambits:
• Appeal to ego.
• Get their commitment that they’ll recommend to his higher authority.
  Go to a qualified subject-to close.
• If they are forcing you to make a decision before you’re ready to do so, offer to decide but let them know that the answer will be no, unless they give you time to check with your people.
• If they’re using escalating authority on you, revert to your opening position at each level and introduce your own levels of escalating authority.