A long time ago my father taught me how to negotiate: Make your demands and then shut up. Whoever speaks first, loses.
Tom Evslin expands on this and presents eleven other lessons to explain the power of silence in negotiation:
Silence from Mr. Oak. They are beginning to squirm as both the silence and their full bladders make them increasingly uncomfortable.“Five months. Tom, don’t you think that is enough time to evaluate and see that our machine is superior to IBM?” But I had my instructions. More silence.
We settled at full past credit, nine months future credit, and permanent onsite technical support with almost another computer worth of spare parts. They hurried out to the men’s room as soon as they decently could.
Lesson #12: There’s nothing as powerful as silence.
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