(Continued from page 39) For instance, if the buyer grumbles at you, “I couldn’t possibly pay that kind of price when you’re only offering us a 6 month warranty,” you just received a signal, planned or unplanned.

You have to listen carefully for signals, because so often, we’re thinking about the next thing that we’re going to say, and a signal like that flies right over our heads.

But if you hear it, it can lead you in an interesting direction. What I hear from a statement like that is, “I can’t pay your price with a 6 month warranty, but I might be able to with a longer warranty.”

My response might be, “What length warranty do you think would be fair?” If the buyer says 2 years, I’m going to move the discussion toward an agreement in principle that he or she would be willing to pay the price that we are currently proposing provided they could get a 2 year warranty.

Furthermore, warranties are in essence insurance policies. If I know that the equipment that we sell really never has a problem in the first two years, going from a 6 month warranty to a 2 year warranty may cost me nothing but may have substantial peace-of-mind value for the buyer.

So watch for signals, and at the same time carefully think about the signals that you want to send.