𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿.

Let’s be honest: it’s not “just you”.

𝟯𝟬% of people involved in negotiations admit they’re afraid their offer will be seen as shocking or disrespectful.

So what do they do?

They soften.

They wait for the other side.

They hide behind “let’s see your proposal first”.

And then they complain that suppliers or internal stakeholders “always anchor too high / ask for too much”.

Of course they do. You gifted them the steering wheel.

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 👇

The fear of the “offensive offer” is rarely about ethics.

Most of the time, it’s about 𝘦𝘨𝘰 and 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

But you don’t have to choose between:

❌ being brutally direct

or

❌ disappearing behind vague, useless sentences

There is a third path: testing your proposals with indirect “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧…” questions.

This is exactly what the CANOES© technique we used at inness does:

using “What if…” to manage counterproposals, add value, say no, and handle potentially offensive offers without burning the relationship.

Instead of saying:

“Our price is XXX. Take it or leave it.”

You can say:

👉 “What if we could not agree to your proposal, what would the consequences be?”

👉 “What if I told you that, in theory, our price was XXX, how would you react?”