"Bargaining is everywhere." – Caio Waisman, Kellogg School of Management
In sales negotiations, delay signals bargaining power.
Signaling significance of response time in negotiations
In research that is of profound significance to sales, Associate Professor of Marketing Caio Waisman of Kellogg School of Management and Jessica Fong, Faculty Michigan University studied millions of transactions on eBay. The results confirmed what every sales professional learns in the course of decades of selling. That response time in negotiation is a signal to be observed and interpreted in sales.
Isn’t bargaining a fact of life?
From buying used utilities, books or furniture online, to concluding wage pacts or high-level trade agreements, bargaining is a fact of life. “Bargaining is everywhere,” quips Prof Waisman who is also an economist. John Nash, economics Nobel Laureate, even wrote a paper about bargaining in the 1950s.
What are the findings and what do they mean for Negotiators?
- The research found that the longer a person took to respond to an offer or counteroffer, the less likely the other side was to continue negotiating
- If you are a seller and you delay your response, the less likely the buyer will be, to buy the product
- In contrast, the more a buyer delays in responding, the more likely the seller will be, to agree to sell the product at the buyer’s offered price
The research concluded that the findings mirror the longstanding theory that delay is a signal of bargaining power. So, what can be the sales learnings?
Action Tips
- If a buyer shows signs of acting quickly, it usually means that the buyer possibly finds the product or service to be of value. But if the buyer is slow to respond, the willingness to pay the quoted price or accept the proposed terms may not be high
- So, when you are in negotiation, seeing how long the other side takes to respond is a signal that you can factor in deciding what should be your approach
The Kellogg’s article on In Price Negotiations, Every Second Counts (Feb 2026) can be read here
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