It creates some negotiating room, and you might just get what you’re asking for.

Whether playing the role of buyer or seller in a sales transaction, asking for more than you expect to get is a classic opening position in negotiations.

In the audio book, “Sound Advice on Negotiating Skills,” author Roger Dawson says, “Henry Kissinger called this the key to success at the bargaining table.” It’s simple, notes Dawson, but there are many profound reasons for doing it.

“It creates some negotiating room that makes it easier to get what you really want,” says Dawson. “It creates a climate where the other person can have a win with you.” This climate can prevent negotiating deadlocks, especially when dealing with an egotistical negotiator, according to Dawson.

“When you’re selling, it raises the perceived value of your product or service,” says Dawson. However, some salespeople are so eager to reach agreement that they soften their opening negotiating position. “They hope that by doing this the client will appreciate how generous they’ve been,” says Dawson. “The danger in this is that the client may instead think, ‘If they’ve given us this much, we can get a lot more; let’s be tough negotiators.’”

The solution, says Dawson – a renowned speaker and author of the book, “Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople” – is to “ask for more than you expect to get, but imply some flexibility so that you can encourage them to negotiate with you.”

Roger Dawson offers negotiating skills advice each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92