Use the Ackerman bid sequence: 65%–85%–95%–100% of target
Make four calculated offers that converge on your target with shrinking steps — each concession signals you are approaching your limit.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Make four calculated offers that converge on your target with shrinking steps — each concession signals you are approaching your limit.
- Why it works: The sequence of decreasing concession sizes (starting at 65% of your target, moving to 85%, 95%, 100%) communicates information nonverbally: the reducing step size signals that each concession costs more, implying you are near your floor. The counterpart experiences the negotiation as extracting hard concessions even when you end at your planned target. Equal-step concessions signal unlimited room; decreasing steps signal a real limit.
- Evidence: Practitioner experience / self-report; no formal study.
- Avoid: Making large equal concessions throughout — this signals to the counterpart that more is available at each step and extends the negotiation past your actual target.
Why it works
The sequence of decreasing concession sizes (starting at 65% of your target, moving to 85%, 95%, 100%) communicates information nonverbally: the reducing step size signals that each concession costs more, implying you are near your floor. The counterpart experiences the negotiation as extracting hard concessions even when you end at your planned target. Equal-step concessions signal unlimited room; decreasing steps signal a real limit.
How to do it
- 1Set your target. Your opening bid is approximately 65% of your target for a buying situation (or 135% for selling — the direction reverses).
- 2Second bid: move to ~85% of target. Third: ~95%. Final: 100% — your actual target.
- 3Make each subsequent concession visibly smaller, with visible hesitation: the behavioral signal reinforces the numerical signal.
- 4Pair the final offer with a non-round number and a small non-monetary concession to further signal a genuine limit.
What the evidence says
AnecdotalThe concession size as a limit-signal mechanism is grounded in research on behavioral cues in negotiation. The specific Ackerman sequence is a practitioner system developed through FBI and commercial application rather than a separately published RCT.
Honest caveat: The Ackerman percentages are practitioner heuristics, not experimentally validated thresholds. The underlying principle — that decreasing concessions signal a genuine limit — has behavioral research support; the specific percentages do not.
- — Voss & Raz (2016), Never Split the Difference
Common mistake
Making large equal concessions throughout — this signals to the counterpart that more is available at each step and extends the negotiation past your actual target.
IX Coach helps you plan your concession sequence before you enter a negotiation so you’re executing a prepared strategy rather than improvising under pressure.
Practice this with IX Coach →