Have you ever had the feeling someone is pulling the wool over your eyes?  Or that you’re not quite getting a fair deal? 

My good friend Ruth was telling me recently about a time when she felt just like this.  And it related to something I’m sure is dear to all of us... a trip to the hairdressers!  So at the time she was having her hair cut in one of those fancy salons, not because she thought the hairdressers were any better, but simply because it was close to her office.

Ruth had been going to this place for a few months and in her recent appointment, the (male) salon owner jumped in at the last minute to finish off the blow dry... No major problem for Ruth... except for when she went to pay and discovered there was a celebrity surcharge on her tab!!

Now a couple of things spring to mind here... Firstly, why is it that women’s hair cuts -  an essential service by any measure - cost so much?  A male friend of mine was complaining the other day that he had to pay $20 for a cut.  Seriously.  He nearly fell of his chair when I told him women routinely pay ten times this much!  (By the way if you’re sick of spending a fortune on your hair - or you can recommend a good quality or good value hairdresser anywhere in Australia - I would love you to share your secrets on our Help Us Find the Hairdressers that don’t break the bank! blog... together let’s start an uprising on this!)

But the second and more important point is this: if you found yourself in this situation, would you complain or refuse to pay for this additional “service” that you hadn’t even requested in the first place?  I reckon most of us would tell everyone we ran into for weeks afterwards about the injustice of it, but would be too embarrassed to "make a fuss" in the salon!

It might seem like a trivial story to be sharing with you, but the reality is our ability to negotiate a fair price at the salon is not that different to negotiating fair pay at work or a fair price on a purchase.  Study after study has shown that women on average aren’t as astute at negotiating as their male counterparts.  Our style, personality and upbringing all play a part... and as a result women often miss out on getting a fair deal.

If this scenario has struck a cord with you, and you’re in Sydney on the 20th November, you must join us at our next sphinxx development day where Candy Tymson will be presenting a learning session on Negotiation: the secrets men don’t want women to know.

We’ll also be hearing from a woman who’s a gun negotiator, Cassandra Kelly, who’s day job before starting her own corporate advisory firm in Australia included negotiating deals and multi-million dollar acquisitions for Deutsche Bank in New York and London.  Cassandra now advises Australian companies and CEOs on how they can get the best deal at the negotiating table and you can have the chance to tap into her advice and experiences - and ask any questions you like! - in our Take the Lead session at this next development day.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to rethink the way we approach every negotiation, from the salon to the salary!