The most successful people guardian their firm’s dollars. They do not justify the reckless squandering of money by considering the percentages. In other words, the most successful people will not concede one percent of a deal by thinking that such concession is only a small part of the overall transaction. Instead, they will consider the dollars represented by that concession and will fight for their firm to retain or receive those dollars.
The top executives will not think to himself, "If I concede this point, it will only represent 1% of the transaction." They will think to themselves, while this is a $100 million transaction, a $1 million concession represents a dozen annual salaries that might be jeopardized by my hasty and irresponsible decision.
Another reason that successful negotiators will not concede even small percentage points of a deal is that they know that their counterparts will perceive such concessions as signs of weakness and will demand further concessions.
The opponents will actually be more satisfied when the deal closes if you fight them on seemingly minor points. For example, suppose you wish to sell your house for $1 million. You hire a real estate agent and that agent closes the deal within a week for your $1 million asking price. Seeing that it was no problem to sell your house for $1 million, you will actually be disappointed that you didn't seek $1.2 million. However, if the buyer negotiated hard and ended up agreeing to buy your house for $975,000, you would probably feel more content because you would believe that you got everything you could have out of the buyer.
