12 Dec A Haggle(less) Country

by Ian Robinson

(photo: Ian Robinson beside his tent)

In 1999 I had finally approached Oqaatsut, 69 degrees North on the West Coast of Greenland.  After days of hauling through frozen fjords of ice and snow I was ready for some reprieve.

There in the scattered inuit village, I met with a local subsistence hunter preparing his array of tools for his craft.  Hungry for some social interaction and entertainment, I spared three days haggling with the hunter to purchase or trade for his “ulu” (a curved skinning knife made of steel and bone).  A good three days invested indeed as a friendship was born.  The knife now sits in my office as a reminder that haggling is also a means of community engagement just as much as determining fair value for an exchange.

So, it was finally great to see an article covered in the SMH by Elizabeth Knight on the 12^th December 2018.  She identified that a good part of the reason why we as borrowers pay too much for our loans, is that we are culturally too trusting, too proud or too scared.  We as a nation avoid “haggling” to avoid the emotional recoil it instils in our inherited physic.  I recently covered off on this very topic in a key note speech in Brisbane two months ago and have written many articles on it prior.

The SMH article goes on to say that the “competition regulator’s 80 page deep dive into the competitive landscape in banking, reaffirms the fact that our (the borrowers) inertia as borrowers cost us and enhance bank profits.”

And don’t the banks love it.

Solution: Robinson Sewell Partners love negotiating.  It is our passion and drive.  It liberates and forges new friendships.  Hand the reigns to us and watch how we leverage the strength of your business into better borrowing rates.  This could be the Christmas that the Grinch forgot.