How about a thousand?

HERE'S ANOTHER of these happy negotiation stories I'm getting a fair few of at the moment, which I'm passing on pour encourager les autres.

A freelance managed to score a 60 per cent increase on the first offer - for an evening interviewing a legendary old American band in the UK for a record-company-produced Electronic Press Kit.

She did it like this: "They wouldn't make an offer so I pitched what I knew from colleagues was highish, I said 'How about a thousand?'" They said, 'Crikey, no,' or similar and offered £500. I said, '£800 and I'm not budging' and I didn't budge and they agreed - not budging proved they had it in the budget!"

© Phil Sutcliffe