Pre-negotiation power move: make them prove to you how cheap they can be

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on May 31, 2023, 11:27 am

I remember as a kid hearing my father angry about a guy's comment.

The power mover was a powerful and wealthy notary, and my father was working as a photographer.

It was a ceremony, in a small group.

A woman commented how they could use my father's services for their upcoming ceremony.
And the notary commented:

Notary: yeah, if he's not too covetous

Several power moves there:

• High-power / low-warmth public comment, he snubbed my father by talking about him, but not to him
• High-register power move: "Covetous" is a rough translation for the word he used in Italian -"esoso"-. It doesn't perfectly translate 1:1, but the point is that the "high-register word" was in itself a power move to self-frame himself as high-class, snartm and powerful.
• Judge negotiation gambit

And the biggest power move of course was a judge negotiation gambit.

I think most guys in the forum can already see through it.

The sub-communication was:

We may use him, but he has first to prove himself that he can make a good-enough price.

It didn't work too well for him, though.

As for most power moves, it backfires when it lends on someone who can see through them.