My brother was living in China, and when this story took place I had been hoping to pay him a 2nd visit for quite some time.

Laura and I had talked about taking our six year old daughter Tannah there, as it would be a tremendous learning experience for her. We had started talking to her about this trip a long time prior to this, but eventually we started to realize that she was just too young for this. Very stressful to travel that far, and she wasn’t old enough to fully appreciate it.

Once we decided not to take her, I felt like an “Indian giver” and we were pretty nervous about withdrawing the offer.

I said, “Tannah, you don’t like Chinese food very much (a very real concern, by the way!) and I’m thinking I should take you somewhere else instead.”

“Like where?”

“Where would you like to go?” “How about Kiddieland?”

I’m thinking, “No way! Kiddieland? Kiddieland is a low-rent amusement park 6 miles from here. Kiddieland instead of China???”

“Tannah, if we took you to Kiddieland, would that be better than going to China?” “Do I get to go without my brothers?”

“Well if you could go to Kiddieland without Tiffany (Jimenez) and Caden, would that be OK instead of going to China?”

She thought that sounded great.

And that’s how I managed to spend fifty bucks instead of $1500, drive her six miles instead of flying her 13,000, and get it done in one day instead of two weeks.

This is an extreme example, of course, but the fundamental reality is no different when you’re dealing with adults and business people. It shows that when you’re negotiating, what you consider valuable can be vastly different than what the other person considers valuable. The whole art of negotiation begins with the realization that business deals are rarely one-dimensional – there’s a whole host of needs and wants on both sides.

Likewise, as a smart marketer / consultant, you understand that everything you offer needs to have multiple dimensions of value, so that when you do have to negotiate, there’s a lot more to talk about than just price and delivery. Which brings us back to widget making: The more aspects of service, value and packaging you can blend into what you sell, and the better they match the true desires of John Q. Public, the less focus there will be on price cutting and the less you will be perceived as a commodity.

Photo by Donnie Ray Jones cc by-sa

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.