Before we go further, one important note: at some companies, deals are simply not negotiable. Prices are fixed, and that’s the policy. If that’s how your company operates, you can skip ahead to the next lesson, none of this applies to you.

For everyone else, here’s a reality you need to accept early: for reasons outside anyone’s control, the public at large treats a visit to a precious metals dealer as an opportunity to negotiate. This isn’t going away, and it isn’t really about precious metals specifically. It’s just how people approach this kind of transaction.

If your company doesn’t allow some room to move, and doesn’t leave a little wiggle room built into the initial offer, you are setting yourself up for constant friction. Many clients will not accept your first number, even when that first number is genuinely the best deal available anywhere in the country. They aren’t rejecting it because it’s bad. They’re rejecting it because accepting the first offer doesn’t feel like winning. People want the experience of negotiating something better, even if “better” only means a small move off the original number. If there’s no room to give them that, they walk away feeling like they lost, regardless of what the actual numbers say.

On the other end, some clients will be upset if they sense there’s room being held back and they didn’t get the absolute best terms immediately. When that happens, you need to be comfortable explaining the reality plainly: dealers have to leave some wiggle room, because the alternative is offending the much larger group of clients who don’t want to do business with someone who won’t budge an inch. It’s not a trick. It’s how you keep both types of clients walking away satisfied instead of losing one group to keep the other happy.

That’s the balance this section is about. Now let’s get into how deals actually move from an opening offer to a closed deal.

Step 1: Propose the Deal

You make an offer. This could be a sale of precious metals to a client, or a buy offer on metals the client wants to sell. Either way, the deal starts with a clear, stated number that, if you are proposing it, should be proposed in writing.

Step 2: Go Quiet

After you present your offer, stop talking. This is the poker face stage. Say nothing. Let the silence do the work.

There are only three legitimate responses to an offer:

• Yes
• No
• No, with a counter offer

Anything else is not a real response. It is a tactic.

Recognizing Tactics Disguised as Responses

Clients will sometimes respond with something that is neither a yes, a no, nor a counter offer. Common examples:

• An eye roll
• A sigh, a scoff, or some other dismissive reaction
• A complaint

These are not answers. They are attempts to provoke a reaction out of you that they can use as leverage.

Your move is to maintain the poker face and stay quiet. Comments are not questions, and they do not require a response. If the client makes a comment, hold your silence and wait for an actual yes or no.

Questions are different. If they ask you something directly, you do have to respond. The four questions that come up constantly:

• “Is this negotiable?”
• “Is that the best you can do?”
• “Can I think about it?”
• “Could you do ______?”

Each of these questions needs a specific, deliberate response, which we break down in the video for this lesson.

Step 3: Handling Each Response

If the answer is yes, close the deal. Do not keep talking. Do not re-justify the price. Move straight to paperwork.

If the answer is no, ask why. How you ask matters.

A weak version of this question already supplies the answer for them: “Are you not doing the deal because you don’t like the price?” This is a leading question and gives them an easy out.

An okay version is simply: “Why?” It works, but it’s blunt and can feel like pressure.

This version removes the pressure the client is bracing for, establishes that your incentives are not against them, and only then asks the real question. Once you have the actual reason:

• If it’s something you can address, address it. For example, a customer is buying a coin and feels the one in front of them is in poor condition. He wants a different one. That’s addressable: pull another coin from stock, or walk him through the same coin’s actual grade so he can see it’s not a flaw, it’s normal wear within spec. Either way, you’re solving the actual objection instead of negotiating around it.
• If it’s something you cannot help with, thank them for sharing and let them go. Do not chase a deal that cannot happen.
• If the “why” comes down to price, invite them to make a counter offer.

How to Invite a Counter Offer

First, actually ask for one. Don’t leave it implied. If you want this to go anywhere, you have to explicitly invite the client to make a counter.

How you ask matters too. The right phrasing can diffuse any tension and steer the client toward a reasonable number instead of an aggressive one. It also helps to frame, early, that this business simply involves a little room to move, since most clients expect some back and forth.

A few phrases that work well:

• “If the numbers are close to where you need them, there’s always a little wiggle room, please feel free to make a counter offer.”
• “One of our main goals here is to make our clients happy.”
• “Most of our clients have seen the back and forth negotiations on shows like Pawn Stars.”
• “We aren’t here to get rich off you, but you do need to leave a little meat on the bone for us to have interest in doing the deal.”

These lines do double duty: they invite the counter, and they pre-frame the negotiation as a normal, expected part of doing business rather than something either side should feel awkward about.

Step 4: Handling Unreasonable Counters

When a counter offer is unrealistic, the fix is not to negotiate from that number. The fix is to educate and invite a reasonable counter. Walk the client through the numbers: spot price, premiums, margins, expenses, whatever applies, so they understand the real constraints behind your offer. Once they understand the math, invite them to make a counter that actually reflects it.

Step 5: Using Levels to Control Pace and Pressure

A business with a hierarchy (associate, supervisor, manager, director, owner) gives you a built-in tool, and the real value isn’t just escalation, it’s that you get multiple bites at the apple.

Each time the client tries to walk away, that’s your excuse to go back to your number. “Let me see if my supervisor can do anything before you go” buys another round. If they push further, you go up another level. Every level is a fresh reason to revisit the deal, and every walk-away attempt becomes a reason to ask for one more minute instead of letting them leave.

Stepping away to “check” also gives you something just as valuable: a private moment to think. Away from the client, you can reassess where the deal stands, decide your next move, and come back with a clear strategy instead of negotiating live under pressure. The walk to the back office is not wasted time, it is working time.