Precise Offers Matter in Negotiations

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The next time you are interviewing for a job of asking for a raise, think about giving the other party an atypical number.

A recent study from Columbia Business School has determined that people who provide precise dollar amounts in negotiations fare better than those who default to rounded-off numbers.

For instance, the study determined that people who offer $5,015, as opposed to $5,000, appear more informed about the true value of the item being negotiated over.

"What we discovered is there is a big difference in what most people think is a good strategy when negotiating and what research shows is a good strategy," Malia Mason says. "Negotiators should remember that in this case. Zeros really do add nothing to the bargaining table."

Mason and Daniel Ames are set to publish their findings in the next Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The duo researched 1,254 fictitious negotiators (clever that they settled on a precise number).

Negotiators were placed in a number of scenarios for items such as jewelry and used cars. The item I read doesn't specifically address salaries, but it would makes sense that a job candidate or an established employee would seem more knowledgeable about their intrinsic value if they had a specific number in mind, rather than a rounded-off amount.