Negotiating With The Cab Driver – A Persuasion’s Tale
Happy greetings to all! 2008 is finally here. A successful and glorious year awaits you!
Are you revved up already?
I had a blast ushering the new year! I hope yours was just as good, if not better!
Today, I want to talk about an event I encountered when I went for a short getaway break with my friends to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5 days ago.
What I’m about to reveal to you soon ties in with some of the persuasion techniques I wrote about recently.
As you can guess from the title, it revolves around an affair concerning me, my friends and a certain cab driver.
Wanna hear more? Read on…
Warning: It is gonna be a long entry but an interesting one… That I assure you…
This is what happened…
Over the weekend, I went up to Kuala Lumpur with 3 friends. There was the four of us – 2 guys, 2 gals. We wanted a good refreshing break after a whole hard year of work! And we certainly got it in Malaysia!
On our second day of the getaway, we decided to go up to Genting Highland – a popular holiday haunt in Malaysia. Genting Highland is famed for it’s cool air, huge theme park and casino.
I was pretty excited because it was going to be my very first time up there. But first, we had to settle how to get there from our hotel. We decided on a cab.
Through the hotel’s concierge, we got a cab to bring us on a one way trip up for 110 Ringgit (Malaysian currency/RM).
Initially the concierge’s staff wanted to offer us a two way package with the returning trip at the same price – 110RM.
But we decided against it as we knew we could return back at a cheaper rate.
So that was it. We got into the cab. And the cab driver greeted us warmly.
As we moved off and got into our journey to the highlands, we engaged in a little banter with the driver. He asked us where we are from, and we told him we are from Singapore.
And he proceeded to talk about how Genting was like, and how treacherous the journey up can be (visitors have to travel up a 60 KM long winding road and many accidents have taken place along there before due to the numerous steep and sharp corners).
He went on to explain to he was working for the hotel. And he confided to us that he only received a cut of the 110 RM we paid for, as hotel takes in a commission.
He asked us how we are coming back. And that’s when we knew it. He wanted to take us back. We are fine with going back with him. He is a pretty funny guy and we enjoyed the initial conversation we had.
The question now is – how much? He offered to fetch us back – at the same price we paid for the trip up. We are certainly not intending to pay 110RM again.
The Negotiation Has Begun!
I told the driver that we can’t really pay 110 RM, because we will also pay the same price if we had gotten through the concierge.
Why do we have to take his offer and not the concierge I asked? Both are the same. But we had the freedom of choice. So give us a better price, I said!
Well, the cab driver was adamant that 110RM was a fair price. He told us the journey up was a very long one (it was about 200+ KM).
And that he will have to wait for us up there as it makes no sense for him to return to the hotel and go back up again.
In the meantime, he needed to cover his cost during the waiting period.
That seems fair. But I’m not having it. There were many other cabbies out there who wanted our business. We could have easily gotten a better price elsewhere.
Furthermore, if we are going to pay 110RM, we might as well get through the concierge.
We wanted to go back at a cheaper rate and we will get it.
Enter The Charm Offensive
I sidestepped his questions. And I tapped him on his shoulder and asked him. “Brother, may I know your good name?”
The cab driver turned back from his wheel to me and replied, “My name is Sartiah (not exactly sure if this is the correct spelling).”
“That’s a very nice name, Sartiah!” I remarked.
Those were like magic to his ears.
He eyes literally widen and lit up. He smiled happily and thank me profusely.
My cheeky friend then butted in, “So, got discount?” And we all laughed.
Round 1 to us.
Sartiah is an ethnic Indian, so I talked about how I love Indian food like Vadeh, Thosai and Chapati. In fact, we even ate Roti Canai (popular Indian pastry) in the morning, as I revealed to him.
He was visibly happy and relaxed as we continue cracking a lot of jokes. We talked about the magnificent Batu Caves where some beautiful statues of Indian Gods are housed.
And the recent ‘Hindraf’ issue whereby many ethnic Indians were protesting against their marginalization in the Malay-dominated country.
We let him know that we empathize with him and his feelings, as he proceeded to told us about the fair rights Indian should get for all their contributions to the country over the last century.
He talked passionately about this. We listened. And we nodded along. To show him we care.
He has opened up to us. He was talking more than us. A good sign.
Round 2 to us.
That’s it! I’m going in. For the kill. And at the price we want.
Me: “Sartiah, I believe you want to make money right?”
Sartiah: “Yes, of course!”
Me: “You know we trust you right?”
Sartiah: “Yeah you can. If I want to cheat you, you can go back to hotel and complain. You can find me there. I can’t run away.”
Me: “No worries, Sartiah. Nobody is going to complain. We like you. We have many options actually. We can take bus.
We can take the many other cabs down there.
Or we can even arrange for our relatives to come down (my friend really has an uncle living in KL) to fetch us.
But NO!
Sartiah. We want to go back with you. Because we trust you.”
Sartiah: “Thank you. You can trust me.”
Me: “You trust me?”
Sartiah: “Yes. We trust each other!”
Me: “Great. How about 50 RM for the return trip?”
Sartiah (widening his eyes in mock horror): “Nooo. That’s too little, my friend. 110 RM is good for me.”
Me: “Sartiah. All right then. 70.”
Sartiah: “No. Cannot. 110RM. To you, Singaporean, a few RM is nothing. Singapore currency is so big (Our currency is about 2.31 times of Ringgit). We convert from Ringgit to Singapore currency, we get only so little!”
Me: “That’s true. That’s fair. But money is still money. We can use the small change to buy more Roti Canai!”
We all laughed again.
Sartiah: “Brother, you are a funny guy!”
Me: “You too, Sartiah. Okay. Let’s make a deal.
For you, I give you 70RM.
I can take other cabs. Or other options like bus. But Sartiah, YOU are our FIRST choice. We going with you. You fine with that?”
Sartiah: “Thank you, my friend. 110RM still best for me. I can’t go lower.”
Me: “Of course you can. Alright Sartiah. As I said, I trust you. We trust you. Now we give you best price. 90RM. That’s as far we can go.”
Sartiah ponders…
Me: “Sartiah. Look. 90RM is good money.
We can get through hotel who is gonna charge the same price as you. The hotel will then go through you.
But you will not get 110RM. You will not even get 70RM. Because they will eat into your price as their commission.
Now I promise you. I will not get through the hotel. I will get through you. You only. You keep all the money.
You okay with that?”
Sartiah silently nodded and listened on…
Me: “Either way, you are going to earn more through us. Because we promised to get through you – not through the hotel.
You see. We are already giving in. We start with 50 – the initial price we were willing to pay.
But now we are giving you 40RM more. You only need to give in 20RM (from 110RM). That’s good business for you right?
Sartiah continues nodding…
Me: So I tell you what. Let me summed up our offer.
1. We get through you. Not the hotel.
2. We pay you 90RM. And you will get 100% of it. Everything. That’s more than what you can get through the hotel if we can go direct to them.
3. Tomorrow, we are making our way around KL. Will you like more business? We can take your cab.
So think about it. This is not a one time thing. It’s more that that.
Why do we do so? Because we trust you, Sartiah.
What do you think, Sartiah?”
Sartiah nodded yet again. And I changed topic as we are nearing our destination.
So we went on to talk about Chinese and Indian temples. And how Chinese and Indians share certain common traits in certain ways.
And I jokingly told him my Indian name is Sundram while my friend’s is Gopal (for the record, we are all Chinese, just in case for you don’t know). There were lots of laughter that ensured…
10 minutes later, we finally reached our destination. Genting Highlands. We paid him the cab fare for the journey up.
Before I alighted, Sartiah said to me, “So Sundram. What time you want me to pick you guys up?”
I smiled, “7 45 pm. So 90RM?”
Sartiah, “For you only, my friend. 90RM!”
We shook hands.
Sartiah parting shot to me, “You enjoy with the 2 gals. I enjoy with my taxi. I’ll see you guys later.”
We all laughed. Again.
Persuasion Lessons We Can Learn From This Episode
1. Bonding.
One of the major reason why we were able to persuade Sartiah is because we set out to make him feel comfortable.
We utilize humor – a very powerful weapon to break the ice. It helped that Sartiah himself is a very funny fellow.
We were able to crack jokes, and we laughed often. That does a lot in creating a bonding between us and Sartiah.
When a bond is being forged, he is more willing to listen to our point of view.
Of course it worked towards our favor that we gave ourselves fake Indian names. Fancy 2 Chinese boys named Sundram and Gopal. It was hilarious. And Sartiah knew it but gamely played along.
2. Trust
There was also an element of trust between us. Why? Because we keep emphasizing our common ground.
He wants to make money.
We want to reach our destination.
We need each other. Might as well work together to reach a win-win solution.
We also showed a lot of empathy about the plight of Indians in Malaysia. It’s the same when we talk about the Indian temples and the fact we created fake Indian names for ourselves to make him feel comfortable.
He appreciates that we do have some understanding of the Indians in Malaysia as well as their culture.
3. Principle of Consistency
We made him agree to the following points:
- We are all on the same side…
- He wants to make money…
- We want to reach our destination.
- He earns more if we go through him than the hotel…
- He stands to earn more because we propose giving him business by taking his cab the next day which is our last day of travel in Malaysia…
He either said yes or nodded to all of them.
When we made our final offer, it was hard for him to say NO. Because he has been too used to saying ‘YES’ in our favor.
It became uncomfortable for him to suddenly change his stance.
That my friend, is the power of consistency!
4. Principle of Reciprocity
We did give him some concessions on our part, and he too felt inclined to do so as well.
Give and you shall receive.
5. Focus On Benefits to Him
We did not talk about how much we can save. But rather how much he stands to gain.
We also created the impression that we gave in more when we increased our offer from 50RM to 90RM.
Truth be told, it was my plan to start from one end of the spectrum. 50RM seems like a good figure because we had a lot of room to play with in terms of reaching towards a middle ground.
6. Win-win
In all negotiations, to reach an outcome that is satisfactory to both sides, it MUST be a win-win scenario. No two ways about it.
When Sartiah recognized we wanted him to win as well, it went a long way in making him see things our way.
Okay! There you go! A story of persuasion – a true story! Have you been in any similar circumstances? Do you identify with some of the techniques being discussed here?
Let’s discuss….!
[tags]persuasion, negotiating, e-moneymarketing, marketing, business, clinch the deal[/tags]
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