141–150 of 178 posts
I accepted an exploding offer. It was a harbinger to a larger detonation. There's a simple way of looking at this type of behavior: If someone is willing to go negative on you at the beginning (evidenced by 'denying' you an investment because you didn't take it when they wanted you to take it) then you should assume they will be willing to go negative on something else of a similar or greater magnitude at a later dat…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Car dealers have sales targets for each month. If they hit the target, they usually get a big bonus from the manufacturer. I've gotten a dealer to sell me a car under dealer price by e-mailing every car dealer in the area on the 29th of the month, saying I was looking to buy a (specific model of a) car immediately. All you have to do is find the one dealer who is 1-2 cars away from hitting their bonus target. It is r…
For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think…
Of course, companies that haven't set their own quarter ends (my employer's quarter ends on a different day than the calendar quarter) are also subject to a similar larger-scale rush-to-target by Wall Street.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think…
Anyone know if this is true for other countries? Specifically Australia? I'm in the market for a new car... and not too fussy about what I get.
So whenever you are buying something from a corporation, try to figure out if they are ahead or behind in sales. They can get really desperate to make the numbers. If the product is selling faster than they can make it, all bets are off. That popular stuff stays a full retail. Nobody will discount since production is limiting their sales, not demand.
Also, understand flooring costs. Often a dealer of expensive stuff like cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs etc gets a line of credit from a large bank for "flooring". This is the roughly 1% per month fee the dealer pays to the bank for interest for the line of credit. If that unit has 12 months of flooring charge against it, people can get really good deals. They just want to clear stale inventory and will take a loss to do so.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think…
It'd make a lot more sense to everyone if the 30-day periods were staggered for each employee, and if they could score "assists" for fellow employees (said fellow employee would need to agree, of course). This would probably make the sales process far more sustainable and team-oriented. Of course, companies that haven't set their own quarter ends (my employer's quarter ends on a different day than the calendar quarte…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would you advise someone to learn how to negotiate and get better at negotiation?
Practice. Lots' of practice. And practice in cases where the outcome doesn't matter even if you have to make up situations to practice on or negotiate for others. In addition to my own deals which I obviously work on, I also, some time ago, took on negotiating deals for others since it was fun to do. I ended up having enough takers that I started to have to charge for doing that. While the amount I am paid wouldn't m…
Playing Diplomacy (and similar games) works for some.
P.S. I'd like to get in touch for some thoughts on negotiation.
When my co-founders and I were applying to accelerators in 2008, we had been accepted into a Philadelphia based accelerator called DreamIt shortly before our YC interviews. Not knowing if we would get into YC, we accepted with DreamIt as it was an exploding offer. A few weeks later we found that we got accepted by YC. After deliberating it for sometime, we went back to the DreamIt team and told them that we wished to…
So basically you made an agreement with one set of investors and then went back on your word because another, "better" set of investors wanted to put money in? Maybe it's just me, but this doesn't reflect that well on you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Email and Oral acceptance of terms can be legally binding in contractual agreements. You don't need to dig up a civil court case to know that verbally accepting a contract without intending to fulfill it is naive and potentially dangerous.
> Email and Oral acceptance of terms can be legally binding in contractual agreements. It looks like (from basic research) that verbal acceptance IS legally binding (in the US anyway). The trouble with verbal agreements is they can be problematic to enforce.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone know if this is true for other countries? Specifically Australia? I'm in the market for a new car... and not too fussy about what I get.
It is for any corporation that has quarters to report to wall street. I used to sell capital equipment ($10-50K invoice amounts) for Snapon Tools. The specials that would come down the line two weeks before the end of the quarter would be ridiculous. I once sold a $30,000 machine for $16,000 because I could close it in June (not July) and the buyer was paying cash and would take a demo unit off my truck. I got the sa…
I've worked with sales teams where "I need to hit target this month" was used as a cover story to offer a moderate discount to a buyer without creating (too much of) an expectation that such discounts would available in the future, or suggesting that the company was getting desperate to close.
That is, it was a partly-but-not-entirely-true story to justify an exploding offer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> These guys dont just want YC's cast-offs, after all. That is thoughtfully provocative. I have literally zero evidence to go from, but I suspect that Y Combinator is like Harvard or Yale: they could get rid of the group that they actually admit and go for the next tier, then achieve similar outcomes. (In other words: there are so many strong applicants that they can't take them all.) This is just to say that even ta…
Im sure a ton of the companies who apply to YC and dont get in are still Grade A. But you have to trust YC knows what they are doing, and the A+++ companies will be picked over before they hit second or third tier. You have to remember that investing in companies is a lottery game. Most angels/vc's profits are made on that 1 in a million company with a 1000x return. If YC wants access to truly the best companies, the…
Sounds like a terrible expected ROI ;)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Car dealers have sales targets for each month. If they hit the target, they usually get a big bonus from the manufacturer. I've gotten a dealer to sell me a car under dealer price by e-mailing every car dealer in the area on the 29th of the month, saying I was looking to buy a (specific model of a) car immediately. All you have to do is find the one dealer who is 1-2 cars away from hitting their bonus target. It is r…
For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think…