Ask and You Might Receive Money, Discounts and More

Guest Post

ask and you might receive money, disounts, and moreImage Source

I wasn’t born this way.  I, like most of you, accepted the “number” I was given.

If someone told me the salary, the price, the terms, or whatever, I’d either accept or decline.  It never occurred to me to ask for what I wanted.

Then, while at an investment class, an extremely wealthy man happened to mention that he asked for discounts all the time.  I found that fascinating because here was a guy who could buy anything he wanted and yet he still negotiated for better prices.  Apparently his offhanded remark stuck with me because I’ve been “asking” ever since.

Like when I decided I wanted a job.  After fifteen years of being self-employed, I came to the conclusion that I needed to get out of the house more.

I create online businesses and it can be quite isolating since I spend the majority of my time alone.

My background is homebuilding and real estate investing so I thought it would be fun to work at a new home community two days a week as a sales assistant.  That way I could work on my Internet businesses 95% of the day, but still interact with people when they walked into the model home.

After doing online research I found the location of where I wanted to work.  Only problem was, I didn’t like the going rate of pay.  Now, I could have stopped there, but I thought this was the perfect job for my situation, so here’s what I did:

I went to my chosen model home community and talked to the sales counselors to find out who might need help.  I was directed to HomeBuilder A.  During the interview I explained that I would need 50% more pay plus a bonus for sales I secured for the sales counselor. After a week of talking to the “higher ups” they informed me they couldn’t approve my terms.

However, because I had built rapport with them, they gave me a stellar reference to another Homebuilder.  Long story short, my terms were met at Homebuilder B where I happily worked for almost a year.

Another idea:  Before you make a purchase in a store, search your smartphone for discounts.  If you can’t find any, politely ask the cashier if she happens to have any coupons.  Often the answer is yes, and the clerk will whip out a coupon for your purchase. I have saved 50-75% off an entire purchase just by asking this one question.

When buying online, first search for coupons.  Can’t find any?  Don’t be deterred.  When I was purchasing an online Writing course, I noticed a coupon box on the checkout page.  I hadn’t found a coupon code when I Googled so I emailed the owner and asked if she was offering one. She replied with a code that saved me $50. bucks!

Not only that but I asked her if it was Ok for my sister to use the discount code too, and so my sister also got a $50. discount.

When shopping for a mortgage, get all the terms.. in writing (Good Faith Estimate.)  Then talk to the Loan officer and say something like, “I’ll tell you what.  I’ll proceed with the Loan but I have to have the $675.Admin fee waived as well as the Appraisal fee.”  Let’s just say they delete the $675. fee.  Add that savings to your down payment so now your Loan is $675. less.  Think you just saved $675?  Yes, but look at the savings over the life of the Loan.  As an example, $675. at 5% interest over 30 years is $1304.48 savings.

[BTW, the reason you want your Loan terms in writing before you start negotiating is so the Loan officer can’t say “Okay” and then make the cost up somewhere else.]

When checking into a hotel I always ask if they’ll do a complimentary upgrade.  Specifically, a gorgeous view.  On this one, I’d say most of the time they accommodate my request.

Same goes for a rental car.  I paid for one upgrade to get myself a cherry red convertible for the week, when the true cost was four upgrades.

5 Tips to Help You Get What You Ask For

  1. Always, always be polite and friendly.
  2. If they say “No’ be even more polite! One, because they are not obligated to give you anything extra, and two, you’d be shocked how often they relent after you are so gracious.
  3. When appropriate, ask for more than you want.  When I got the 50% pay rate increase, I actually asked for 50-80%.  In the Loan situation, ask for more.  The same goes if you’re buying a car or other big ticket item.
  4. Expect them to say yes.  I practically shake my head yes (and smile) as I’m asking!  LOL
  5. Ask with confidence; don’t be timid.

By now you must be thinking of ideas of how you can add dollars to your bottom line, or perhaps you already ask for extras.

Let’s have some fun with this.

Comment below and give us the best “ask and receive” you’ve experienced.  If you’re new to this, try it in the next few days and then come back and share with us!

The more you practice, the better you’ll get.

Darlene Bauer works from home in the Texas Hill Country. She created BlogBoldly.com as a platform to help struggling bloggers take their Blog to Profit for freedom, money and fun. She’ll even show you how to set up a blog if you dream of blogging but haven’t taken the leap yet.

43 Comments

  1. I always use online coupon codes but never thought to look for coupons on my phone while in-store. Great tip!

    1. Hi Jenn!

      Yeah.. and even I forget to check sometimes.

      The other day I was leaving the airport parking lot where I’d parked my car for 3 days.

      As I was paying, the guy asked if I had a coupon. You should have seen my face.. haha.

      I asked if I could access the coupons from my phone. He said yes but there were cars behind me so I had to let it go. BUT it’s another perfect example of how I could have saved $$ if I’d thought to check.

      ~ darlene 🙂

  2. Good tips. I have learned that sometimes we don’t have things simply because we did not ask for them.

  3. Hi Lynda!

    Is that not the truth or what? That’s why “Ask and You Might Receive” came to me for the title!

    Being from the south (born in GA) your southern recipes on your blog look yummy.

    One of my fav places to eat in Savannah is “Mrs Wilkes.” Talk about down home southern cooking..

    ~ darlene

  4. This is such a good tip to negotiate when buying things or getting a job. To get the best deal that you can is so important. Check for the cheapest deals from websites that give codes and tell you where the product is cheaper is what I love when shopping. I always get a good feeling when I know I haggled for the best deal.

  5. Those are good tips, and you are right, I do find that it doesn’t hurt to ask. If I don’t ask, the answer is already no.

  6. Thank you Darlene for the great tips! You have inspired me to start negotiating to get better deals. I never think to do this. I just pay and go. Also… I love the smart phone tip. I use my smart for everything, but… I never thought of it as a coupon tool.

  7. I don’t ask but after reading this post I sure will.

    I’m the type of person who comes home after a trip to the store and then find the coupons I could have used in my email inbox 🙂

    Needless to say I’ll be check that more often too 🙂

    Have a great day!

    1. LOL.. yep, I used to do that.

      And believe it or not, I don’t clip grocery coupons because it seems like too much time for the amount of money saved.

      But the stuff I’m talking about can save you big bucks for minimal effort.

      Like one time I was in Old Navy actually standing in line to checkout when I found a coupon that saved me something like $75 dollars! For only two minutes of my time that it took to pull up the coupon.

      ~ darlene

  8. I definitely need to do this more often. I’m so timid when it comes to shopping and asserting myself. Thank you so much for these very helpful tips.

    1. Jennifer, start with an easy one.. like online coupons and smart phone instore coupons.

      You’ll get such a kick out of saving, I bet you get bolder!

      At this point it’s almost a game for me.. and my family almost rolls their eyes when they see me in “action!” LOL ..but hubby sure appreciates the savings.

      YOU will too!

  9. Yes! Great tips! I did a blog piece about this a few weeks ago after I was SO excited when I found that if you have a smartphone, you can sign into Kohl’s when you enter the store and get coupons for a good discount off the whole purchase (or something) even without using a credit card. Now I check it every time I go anywhere!

  10. Thanks for the tips! Being polite and friendly goes a long way.

  11. These are excellent tips Donna. I think you should ask for what you want. Even if they can’t give you what you want, it often at least opens the door for negotiation.

    1. Author

      I can’t take the credit for the post, Christy, that goes to Darlene, my guest blogger. I agree with her, though. 🙂 I have always said that it doesn’t hurt to ask because the worst thing that can happen is they say, “No.”

  12. This post is so true! The worst they can say is no!

  13. This is great! I was like you in the beginning too where I was afraid to ask for more pay, but now I know what I’m worth and feel confident asking for more.

  14. How true! It always (well nearly always) pays to ask! These are really great tips BTW! I find that oftentimes we don’t have things simply because we never asked for them in the first place!

    1. Hi Veronica!

      You know… maybe that’s really the lesson here:

      “oftentimes we don’t have things simply because we never asked for them in the first place!”

      not the discounts so much.. but more about speaking up.

      Take the Loan idea. Many people think the bank is doing them a favor. But I think I’m doing the bank a favor because they need borrowers like me.

      And Elaina mentioning how she now knows she’s worth asking for more pay.

      It’s flipping our mind set to not being afraid to ask..

      ~ darlene

  15. I definitely search out coupons but I never thought to email the site owner and just ask for a discount code. I will now!

    1. Hi Liz..

      You know that was the first time I did that.. but I thought ‘what the heck’ and tried it.

      The thing is, all these tips only takes minutes to try, so asking that one question (and receiving email back) made me $50. in about two minutes.

      Time well spent, I think. Darlene 🙂

  16. I absolutely love saving money and always appreciate learning easy new ways to do so!

  17. I do find it hart to ask in a job situation but I often am good about finding the best deal and asking for discounts when I purchase items.

  18. perfect tips have a restaurant we visit often that has teh belly up program and we earn points I’m due for a free pitcher of Margaritas

  19. Great tips! Everyone could use a little extra cash.

  20. We just did this with our TV provider- our contract was up {so our prices were, too} so we asked if they’d give us a discount if we signed a new contract. They definitely delivered, giving us all new {much better} equipment for free, a huge discount on our bill & even free premium channels. Score.

  21. You definitely attract more flies with honey. Great tips, I am all for saving money whenever I can!

  22. Heavens, I wish I would have read this before we signed on for our new mortgage. I am so terrible at asking for discounts but I’m going to start doing it.

  23. I always try to search for coupons before making a purchase but that’s really all I do…except when making a big purchase such as a car or house.

  24. Great tips. I definitely go with being polite, why would anyone want to help you out otherwise.

  25. Love the tips. Thank you! 😀

  26. I’m definitely going to remember this article for later when it’s time to negotiate with our ISP and so on.

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