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the property line, it won’t be enough simply to offer a replacement tree. An apology will be necessary as well. If you do not offer such an apology, no amount of replacement trees will be considered adequate.
    Perhaps in your attempts to negotiate a lower price for a house you are thinking of buying, you criticize the size of the dining room, the absence of a fireplace in the family room, or the color of the exterior walls. These comments may offend the sellers, causing them to withdraw from the discussions even though this limits their selling opportunities. In cases such as this, it is more appropriate for you to take a self-deprecating approach. Praise the aspects of the house you do like, but indicate your financial limitations. This may generate sufficient sympathy to induce the sellers to consider a reduced price. Most people would prefer to sell their house to someone wholoves it for a lower price than to someone who has criticized their home for a higher price.
    Prioritize Bargaining Items
    Next, determine your bargaining priorities. These objectives can be divided into four broad categories:
     
“Essential” items include those that you must obtain to satisfy your fundamental interests. If these key terms are not resolved to your satisfaction, you would prefer your non-settlement alternatives.
“Important” items are those that you would very much like to obtain, but which you would forego if the “essential” terms were resolved favorably.
“Desirable” items are those of secondary value that you would be pleased to have, but which you would be willing to exchange for “essential” or “important” terms.
“Indifferent” items are those you would be perfectly willing to concede to achieve your other bargaining objectives.
    Consider Substitutes
    When you initially determine the value of particular items, contemplate substitute terms you might accept if you cannot obtain what you want. For example, when buying a new car, you might agree to a higher price if thedealer includes “free” service for the first two years or an extended five-year warranty. Someone shopping for a new outfit might pay more if the salesperson throws in a lovely scarf or a tie. These are win-win exchanges, because the buyer values the additional items at their retail price while the seller values them at their wholesale cost. By sharing the difference between the retail and wholesale values, the transacting parties can agree upon mutually acceptable terms.
    Similar trades can be made with respect to less tangible terms. If a new employee is given an exalted title, he or she may agree to a lower salary or a more modest office. Someone else negotiating a new job may focus almost entirely on the salary being offered. If the prospective employer offers $5,000 less than the employee believes she deserves, she may reject the deal. If she doesn’t think she can obtain a higher salary level, she should consider indirect forms of compensation. Perhaps the firm would agree to provide her with a company car she could use for personal travel or with valuable training opportunities that would enhance her future employment opportunities. These non-taxable fringe benefits may actually be worth more than the extra $5,000 in salary she was seeking.
    Add Extras
    Good negotiators recognize that we can rarely get everything we ask for. We also may have to forego some important or desirable items to obtain our essential demands. The Intelligent Negotiator increases the likelihood of achieving his or her critical objectives by expanding the issues being negotiated. If you merely ask for two or threeitems, you are unlikely to get all those terms. However, if you include several “extra” items, you give yourself some bargaining room.
    A friend once told me she was preparing for an important negotiation with her manager. She said that she especially wanted two things—a better office and an elevated job title—but thought he would not agree to